


The Despero Intersection

by ksennin



Series: The Erotic Adventures of Wonder Woman [2]
Category: Justice League International (Comics), Wonder Woman (Comics), Wonder Woman - All Media Types
Genre: Crack, F/F, F/M, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Character of Color, Lesbian Sex, Parody
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-07-11
Packaged: 2018-01-25 00:17:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 21,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1622186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ksennin/pseuds/ksennin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wonder Woman faces the most depraved, insane challenge of her career. Despero is also there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the story by Giffen, DeMatteis and Hughes  
> featured in the Justice League of America comic book.  
> issues #37-#40. Now told without any damn censoring.

PROLOGUE 1: ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT

 

 

Somewhere by Neptune's orbit, a small, rather

depressing-looking moon was shrouded by an enormous

shadow. Slowly, the gargantuan object blocking the

faint light of Sol, passed a few hundred miles to a

side of the lifeless rock, whose cratered surface

was mute witness to the passage of the gigantic

artificial construct, as it soared inexorably

through the apparent nothingness of space.

 

"SPACE! THE FINAL FRONTIER..."

 

"Sir, you are shouting again."

 

"Oh, thank you, L-Ron," answered the tall,

ornately armored Manga Khan, head of the galactic

capitalistic Conglomerate, his long, silken cape

flowing behind him as he walked, absentmindedly

scratching his behind. "How long was it this time?"

 

"A full ten minutes without talking out loud

to yourself, My Lord," answered the small robot,

his mechanical voice making a very acceptable

facsimile of a sigh.. "Almost half an hour without

any lengthy expository monologue."

 

"Good. Good. I feel I am making great

progress. Hey! What was that?"

 

L-Ron's optical array peered at the fading

flare of light seen through a side view port while

he accessed the central mainframe. "Just a primitive

artifact of the Earthlings that our gravitic flux

field brushed aside. A robot probe, I believe."

 

"Robot probe?"

 

"I love it when you talk dirty, my Lord."

 

"I can't believe it!" said a man dressed in a

garish red and yellow costume, trailing behind Manga

and L-Ron as he peered at a hand span-thick printout.

"And I thought Apokolipsian legalese was thick!"

 

"Ah! Mister Miracle!" said Khan opening his arms

in a welcoming gesture. "Shouldn't you be resting for

your lengthy tour?"

 

"Khan! This is ridiculous!" complained Scott

Free, best known as Mister Miracle, the master escape

artist. "The wordplay here makes no sense at all.

Mother Box almost fainted translating it."

 

The living computer strapped to Mr. Miracle's

arm 'pinged' weakly in agreement, while Khan chuckled

with amusement.

 

"Psion lawyers are indeed the best in all the

Galaxy. Devious, cold-hearted fiends. I love their

work. Stopped trying to read the contracts myself

years ago."

 

"By Highfather! According to this, a Citadel

slave or an Armaghetto Hunger Dog has more rights and

benefits than I do!"

 

"Yes, yes, beautiful redaction indeed."

 

"Look, you know I'll honor my obligations, no

matter how much that idiot agent of mine shafted me,

but I can't stay off-Earth this long without at least

calling my Wife. And the Justice League, too."

 

"Long-distance calls are not covered. Sorry."

 

"For the Source's sake, even criminals get a

phone call!"

 

"Ah, but you are not even a criminal," Khan

said. "You are just Talent. BWA-HA-HAAA-HA!"

 

"You are laughing hysterically again, My Lord."

 

"Oh. Thank you again, L-Ron. Good work."

 

"That's why you pay me the Big Bucks, Sir."

 

"Khan, you know what happened the last time,"

said Mr. Miracle. "My wife and the Justice League will

again come looking for me, and all hell will break

loose. You have no idea how Barda gets when she's

pissed. Look, just let me call and tell her that I'll

be a few months late for dinner and-"

 

"Don't worry, Mr. Mira Culo-"

 

"Miracle."

 

"-You need not worry about your spouse and

friends," continued L-Ron. "As specified in line six

of paragraph ten of page five of Clause 73a, a fully

functional android duplicate has been provided to

fill in for all your duties on Earth for the duration."

 

"A robot? You expect my wife and friends to be

fooled by a robot?"

 

"Worked for Elvis."

 

"I really, really need to change agents," Scott

muttered, looking again at the massive document. "The

tie-in merchandise sucks, too. Crappy ToyFare action

figures... And a Mr. Miracle all-purpose toilet brush?"

 

He sighed. It was going to be a long tour.

 

The gigantic construct continued its travel,

oblivious to the complains of the organic life inside

its mammoth frame, all such concerns insignificant to

its all-consuming mission of making a sizable profit.

 

"And just what exactly did you mean by 'fully

functional'?"

 

 

 

 

PROLOGUE 2: LEST OL' ACQUAINTANCES BE FORGOT

 

 

The NASA probe sputtered, circuits overloading.

 

He knew not how long it had taken to draw the

scattered fragments of his essence back into a

semblance of self. It could have been minutes or eons.

To his sensory deprived consciousness, it had felt

like an eternity. An eternity to nurture his hate.

 

Reshaping a body was a lot easier than

reassembling his mind had been. He only needed

energy, and the sudden power surge of the pathetic

Earthling device was enough to start the process.

The power of his hate would be enough to continue.

 

*THERE. I CAN SENSE THEM. CLOSE, SO CLOSE.*

 

The objects of his hate were within reach. He

felt his body grow stronger in the knowledge.

 

Crackling with power, the creature's still

embryonic body sped toward the inner planets, leaving

behind him the ruin of the Earthling probe.

 

*MY HATE MUST HAVE EXPRESSION.*

 

 

**********************************************

 

 

The two baffled NASA technicians who received

the probe's last transmissions minutes later, chose

discretion as a career move.


	2. She's Got The Look

"Oh-My-God!"

 

"Mmm... Hubba-hubba."

 

"You're recording this, right?"

 

"You bet."

 

"I just got religion. This is irrefutable proof

that there's a God," whimpered Blue Beetle, drooling

rather literally. "How else can you explain something

so, so... PERFECT?"

 

"Just look at those legs, man. Long, smooth,

muscular, but not too thick..." said Booster Gold.

"And that ass! Ouch... Who needs bracelets? That butt

can deflect gunfire for sure."

 

"Butt? I haven't reached there yet!" said Beetle.

"Can't take my eyes off the tits. Damn, even Fire's

rack can't compare to that."

 

"Not as big as Power Girl or Scott's wife, I

think, but much more prominent and high-set."

 

"How can those jugs even fit in there? How big

you guess those babies are?"

 

"Mmm... About 38D."

 

"No way! Look at 'em, those gotta be at least

a forty inch set! Look at how plump and round they

are!"

 

"Exactly, you idiot. It's not the size. You

can see tits twice as big in any strip club-"

 

"You can? Where?"

 

"-but they just look gross, man. It's the

shape and proportion that counts, how naturally

round and high-"

 

"And firm but still jiggly..." gasped Beetle,

biting his knuckles.

 

"She has a broad back and a very narrow waist,

too. That makes it all look even more impressive."

 

"That top has no straps or anything. Just how

the hell does it stay on?"

 

"Um, you're right. That's one mayor superpower

there."

 

"Can you zoom in a bit? I think I can notice

the nipples."

 

"You weren't breast-fed as a baby, right? Stop

obsessing over individual parts, man! It's the

complete package that matters! Look at that face! That

hair!"

 

"Can't help it. I'm a mammal," whined Beetle.

"Look at them. There can't be a greater pair of

boobs in the whole world."

 

"I can think of a pair right in front of me,"

said a deep voice behind them.

 

Booster and Beetle both turned around instantly,

the monitor room chairs swiveling to face the tall,

imposing green figure of J'onn J'onzz, the Martian

 

"Uh-Hi, J'onn, how's it hanging?" said Beetle

with a way too eager, way too toothy smile.

 

"I may hang the two of you if you cannot behave

yourselves," said J'onn, his eyes narrowed menacingly

below his protruding Martian brow. Inside, however,

J'onn smiled. Irritating as the behavior of the team's

resident comedians could be, it was hard to remain

angry for long. "The monitors are not for staring at

a visitor's anatomy."

 

"Shouldn't we always check for uh, concealed

weapons or something? Just in that cleavage..."

 

"Beetle, please show some respect."

 

"Aw, come on, you know I'm always a perfect

gentleman," said Beetle, while Booster wished very

hard to vanish into the JLI Embassy's carpeting.

 

"Yes, Beetle, and the video camera Fire found

in her shower was just a mistake, I am sure."

 

"You bet! It should have been hidden a lot

better. Uh-Anyway, Kilowog did it."

 

"Kilowog is not an Earthling, Beetle, why would

he have any interest in Fire's unclothed form?"

 

"Maybe he was hungry or something? You've seen

how that guy eats."

 

"Uh," volunteered Booster. "Perhaps Kilowog was

just beefing up security and couldn't tell apart the

different types of rooms, being an alien and all, you

know."

 

"Are you implying that all non-Earthlings are

ignorant fools?" J'onn asked softly, his seven feet of

massive green muscles towering over his teammates'

sitting figures.

 

"No, no! Culture shock. That's what I meant."

 

"Well, you two may be in for some mayor shocks

if you embarrass us again, understood?"

 

J'onn glanced at the monitor screen showing the

Embassy's foyer, where League administrators Maxwell

Lord and Oberon were greeting Princess Diana of the

Amazons, better known worldwide as Wonder Woman. She

was dressed in her usual brief attire homaging the

American flag colors, with golden-plated bustier and

star-spangled bottom, plus knee-high boots, tiara and

bracelets. She was carrying a small duffel bag, too.

With a casual psychokinetic pulse, J'onn turned the

monitor off.

 

"Alright, Booster, you come with me to greet the

Princess," J'onn said. "Beetle, you remain here on

monitor duty. Try to stay out of trouble."

 

"On, man, no!" Beetle pouted. "That's not fair!

Why Booster and not me?"

 

"Good point. You both stay here, then."

 

 

**********************************************

 

 

"It would be a pleasure to have you stay with us,

Wonder Woman," Maxwell Lord said, while he shook hands

with the beautiful Amazon Princess. "The Justice League's

Embassies are open at all times for you."

 

"Thank you, Mr. Lord," Wonder Woman answered

with a dazzling smile, shouldering the duffel bag she

carried. "It is only for a couple of days, until I

can address the United Nations committee."

 

*That must have been practiced. No one could

smile like THAT just on natural talent,* Max thought,

smiling himself with well-polished charm. A successful

life in high finance, and his recent handling of the

new Justice League International, had allowed Max to

meet more than his share of the most beautiful women

in the world. Few could compare to the bright-eyed

young woman now facing him, but at least he could

avoid staring.

 

Oberon tried to do the same, but he lacked Max's

nonchalance, as well as his height. Being less than

four feet tall, he had to step back and crane his neck

to better look at the girl's face past the prominence

of her bust, as he sought to find an innocuous angle of

sight. No easy task, he realized. There was a lot to

stare at on that girl.

 

*Crotch's right in front of my face, for God's

sake! And that damned star-spangled bottom could hardly

be skimpier!* Oberon thought, shifting on his feet

uneasily, sticking his hands into the pockets of his

pleated pants to make his growing erection less

noticeable. It was not like him to behave this way, he

chided himself. *So she's cute and has nice tits? Big

deal, Fire's always around half naked, too, and Scott's

wife's not called Big Barda just 'cause she's tall.*

 

"Nonsense, you are welcome to stay for as long

as you wish," Max said, leading her to the drawing

room. "We were quite devastated when you resigned from

our European branch, after the Extremists' situation.

Your presence was such a great asset."

 

*Boy, Max's really laying it on thick,* Oberon

thought, feeling relieved as they all sat down, and he

could place his hands over his lap.

 

"I have been too busy to commit to a group,

Mr. Lord. But I would be happy to help the League

whenever I can."

 

"If you're going back into our reserve line-up,

we should give you a new signal device, Wonder Woman,"

Oberon commented, looking up nervously as she crossed

her legs gracefully. *Jeez, not even Black Canary had

legs like that...*

 

"Oh, please call me Diana," she said, smiling

at him. "Thank you."

 

"Oberon, I, uh, am Oberon," he said in a voice

that threatened to break, feeling dumbstruck by her smile.

 

"Like the Faerie?"

 

"Fairy?" Oberon asked, frowning.

 

"The Lord of the Faerie realm. The playwright

Shakespeare featured him in a play in the English

language, did he not? As well as a character named

after my mother, Hypolita."

 

*Jesus on a pogo stick. All that and brains, too.*

 

"You should catch up on your reading some

dreamless midsummer night, Oberon," said J'onn J'onzz

with a smile as he walked into the room. "Princess."

 

"J'onn!," Diana said, rising up to warmly take

his hands into hers. "I had not seen you since the

Invasion."

 

"It is good to have you here without need for a

crisis, Princess."

 

"Hello, I am Scott Free, Mister Miracle, the

world's greatest escape artist."

 

"Yes, we had met, Mr. Free," said Diana, as

she shook hands with the red-and-yellow garbed figure

who had just walked in, following J'onn.

 

J'onn glanced at Mister Miracle with some

confusion. He had not felt Scott walking behind him.

Scott's mind was typically much more guarded than a

normal Earthling's, and J'onn always kept his

telepathic senses politely restrained among friends,

yet to be fully unaware of a mental presence was very

 

"Scotty, my boy," Oberon said, cheerfully.

"Weren't you supposed to be starting that foreign

tour today? Or did that lousy agent blow it again?"

 

"I could find you better representation,"

Max volunteered.

 

"The tour will go as scheduled." Mister

Miracle told Oberon flatly, with none of the warmth

he usually reserved for his old friend and former

assistant. "There is nothing wrong."

 

"Hey, Scott's here, too," another voice

 

"Beetle, weren't you two supposed to remain

on monitor duty?," asked J'onn with a resigned tone.

 

"Kilowog dropped by and relieved us," said

Beetle with a shameless smile as he stepped forward

to shake Wonder Woman's hand, sucking in his gut

as much as he could. "Miss Woman, uh, Princess Di, so

glad to have you here."

 

>>>Beetle, try not to drool on the Princess's

boots, please.<<< J'onn's telepathic voice resonated

inside Beetle's head.

 

*I can't hump her leg, either?* thought Beetle

in reply, his smile threatening to outgrow his face,

while he made a conscious but not too strenuous

effort to avoid peeking at the Amazon's cleavage.

 

"Your Highness," said Booster, nudging Beetle

aside with his shoulder as he bent to kiss her hand,

running through his mind a myriad pick-up lines never

yet heard in the 20th Century, before finally

settling for an aged classic of lameness. "You honor

us with your presence."

 

"There really is no need for such formality-"

said Diana, feeling very embarrassed.

 

"Beetle, it'll take half an hour more to rewire

all monitors to record in X-ray," said the hugely

muscled, eight-foot-tall former Green Lantern called

Kilowog, entering the room with his toolbox in hand.

 

"Oh, hullo, Miss," he added, wiping his

oversized hand on his greasy denim overalls before

offering it to the surprised Wonder Woman.

 

J'onn sighed. Sometimes it was hard to tell if

they were all playacting or being fools sincerely.

Often he couldn't see any difference.

 

*At least Gardner is not here to make things

worse,* he thought.

 

"Hey! Miss Wonder Boobs's here!" exclaimed Guy

Gardner as he walked by the corridor, a six-pack of

beer in one hand and a plain brown package in the

other. "Now why doesn't anyone inform me of shit like

that? I woulda taken a bath or sumthin'!"

 

And then the sprinklers turned on.


	3. Come On, Baby, Light My Fire

Her trembling lips were soft, and sweeter than

the fondly remembered candy of one's youth. She was

at first hesitant in returning the kiss, her shyness

making her even more adorable, but gradually she gave

in to the caress, her small mouth opening in gentle

surrender. Her lips and tongue moved in a slow dance

of desire and as the kiss became more and more intense

and involved.

 

She began to breathe heavily with eager

anticipation as the kisses traveled from her lips to

her sensitive neck, and then began to move downwards

slowly, in a maddening progression of delicious

teasing. She moaned softly as lips brushed tenderly

the edge of an aureole, drawing careful circles

around the rosy nipple without touching the small nub.

When the nipple had hardened in aching need, the

caress switched to her other breast, repeating the

process and the change again and again until she

could not help but push out her chest in silent

supplication, almost painfully aware of her nipples'

hardness. She then let out a soft gasp as the excited

buds were finally touched, teeth biting lightly first

on one and then the other, gently worrying the erect

buds.

 

She blushed then as she felt her lover's oral

caress leave her small, firm breasts and move down her

torso, to linger for a few moments on the navel before

heading even lower.

 

"No, don't..." she complained with very little

conviction, before complying with the silent but

insistent request of the hands asking her to spread

her legs, to expose her sex to the incoming pleasure.

 

She held her breath in expectation as she felt

the soft white hairs of her neatly trimmed pubis

being playfully nuzzled by a nose, her sensitive skin

feeling the warmth of the breathing of her lover.

 

She almost cried out then as she felt the first

feathery touch on her sex, as lips caressed lips with

slow and skillful motions, while gentle hands ran over

the smooth skin of her thighs and hips, subtly hinting

at the promise of even greater pleasures.

 

An able tongue worked her outer labia and

probed her moist slit, while fingers slid carefully

along her perineum, caressing the base of the labia

and the rosy entrance to her anus, and played around

the hood covering the erect clitoris, teasingly

avoiding direct contact with the love button itself.

She moaned and whimpered with rising desire as the

pleasure grew, flooding her loins with exquisite warmth.

 

"Aaaah...!" she cried out, as her clitoris

was finally caressed by the flick of the tongue

pleasuring her, and a finger probed with care the

entrance to her vagina.

 

She did little more than tremble and moan for

the next few minutes as the pleasure rose, each

instant taking her to a higher level of excitement

than before, far beyond what she ever believed

possible, taking on an almost manic urgency.

 

The pleasure had grown from a languid, softly

pleasant warmth to an all-consuming inferno, as if

every single nerve had been bared raw and ignited by

flames that could not be denied, that threatened to

overcome her very sense of being, as if her whole

existence could be swallowed by her desperate need

for release.

 

"OH, BEA!" Ice cried out in ecstasy as she

finally reached climax, her orgasm overwhelming her

body and mind with a power that her slender, delicate

frame seemed unable to contain. Her hands clenched

with unusual strength on handfuls of the luxurious

curls of her lover's hair as she rode out her orgasm,

her voice breaking as her whimpers and cries filled

her room in the Justice League's Embassy.

 

Beatriz DaCosta, the Brazilian heroine known

as Fire, smiled with pleased satisfaction, ignoring

the weakening pulls on her hair as Ice convulsed in

what was perhaps the lovely girl's first orgasm ever.

With loving tenderness, she pressed her check against

Ice's still trembling thigh, kissing her on the soft

juncture of leg and pubis, while letting her hands

caress the smooth skin of belly and leg until she

felt the convulsions fade completely.

 

As Ice lay gasping on her back, Fire slid

from between the open legs of her lover and moved

up to embrace her, the caramel-colored body of the

well-tanned Brazilian bombshell contrasting

beautifully with the flushed skin of the dazed

Nordic girl.

 

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Fire asked,

breathing on Ice's ear, as she hugged her closer,

relishing the contact of the young girl's

still-trembling body.

 

"Oh, Bea..." Ice whispered, blushing.

 

"We're sure now that ice powers or not, you're

certainly not frigid," Fire said with a wicked grin.

 

Ice blushed even deeper, her usually creamy

pale skin red with both her embarrassment and her

recent excitement. In lieu of an answer, she kissed

Fire with that shy devotion that Beatriz found so

irresistible. They continued kissing, remaining still

in each other's arms for a long time, savoring the

moment.

 

"I had never thought it would be like that,"

Ice volunteered in a whisper, after what had seemed

like an eternity of rapturous embrace, blushing

again at the daring of her words.

 

"And it only gets better, believe me," Fire

answered, smiling broadly, while she mussed Ice's

short, platinum blonde hair.

 

"The intensity is almost scary..." Ice added

timidly, breathing deeply.

 

"It is not the same for everyone, you know,"

Fire explained, rolling to a side and stretching

sensuously. "Who knows? Maybe us, young, beautiful

and superpowered, have it better than anyone else!"

 

"Don't go," Ice said. "Hold me a while longer."

 

"Sure, Tora," Fire said, pulling her friend

close. "What is scary is to think that you never

tried it before on your own."

 

"I don't know. I was afraid, I guess..." Ice

mumbled. "My parents always..."

 

"Shhh..." Fire hushed her. Ice seemed so much

like a normal girl that it was easy to forget that she

came from an isolated Northern community of weird

mystic origins. Still, it was hard to believe that

even an Artic goddess had never ever tried to

masturbate, much less have sex.

 

*Amazing... Sometimes I think I was barely out

of diapers when I started myself,* Beatriz thought.

 

They had been close friends ever since Ice had

joined the Global Guardians, and thought it had always

been obvious that Ice's demure innocence was fully

sincere, Beatriz had still been shocked to recently

realize that her friend was still a virgin in every

sense of the word.

 

Fetching naiveté aside, it was a damn waste of

such a lovely sweet thing, Fire had thought, and when

that Gardner jerk had begun to hit on poor misguided

Tora, Beatriz had instantly decided that she would not

let that pig ruin her friend's first time. His idea of

romance probably included a sleazy porn movie and a

truckload of beer, she knew, and he could have easily

ruined Tora's appreciation of sex forever.

 

*I should have done this sooner.*

 

Fire had enjoyed sex with other women ever

since the first experimentation at high school, but

she had always been too fond of men in general to

consider herself a lesbian. Such need for labels

struck her as ridiculous, anyway. Still, she knew that

had never felt as close, as intimate, with a man, as

she felt with Tora. They were much more than just

friends, or even sisters. They were complete opposites

that complemented each other much like the whimsical

play on words of their codenames indicated. That they

had never made love before now seemed extremely stupid.

 

"I love you, Bea," Ice said, a twinge of fear

in her voice, her body tensing noticeably.

 

"I love you, too, Tora," Beatriz whispered back,

kissing her brow, smiling as she felt her relax again

in their embrace.

 

"Can I now do it for you, too?" Ice asked.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"Higher... There... Mmm... Nibble, just there..."

 

"Like this?"

 

"Don't talk with your mouth full. A bit harder,"

Fire instructed. "Oh, yes!-Your finger -slide it in

now, and press up - No, arch it a bit -Yes! Mmm..."

 

Fire moaned in pleased delight as Ice's fingers

and tongue pleasured her with eager enthusiasm. She

felt entranced by the sight of the lovely Ice nestled

between her legs, those pure blue eyes closed while she

licked and sucked on Beatriz's sex. But while Tora was

doing fine, despite her inexperience, and Beatriz

enjoyed the sense of power of telling her exactly what

to do, still she felt like she was missing something.

 

"Don't rush," Fire said, cupping her breasts

and playing with her large, dark nipples. "Just do it

like you like it yourself, um, like you would want it

done to you... Mmmm... That's the idea."

 

Fire breathed hard and fast, moaning without

inhibitions, as Ice's caresses took her to even

higher excitement. She felt so close to orgasm, her

sweat-covered body aching for culmination. She bit her

lower lip in lustful longing, But while the pleasure

continued undiminished, Fire began to feel frustrated

as she seemed no closer than before to climax. She

probably was too nervous, she thought, but she just

seemed unable to reach the peak she needed.

 

"Faster, Tora, harder," Fire demanded, gritting

her teeth. "Damn!" she cursed in Portuguese.

 

"Am I doing it wrong?" Ice asked, measureless

hurt in her eyes.

 

"No, you're just perfect, amor. It's me..." Fire

sighed. "You wouldn't have a dildo around? Oh, stupid

of me-forget I asked-"

 

"I could improvise something."

 

"Uh?"

 

Before Beatriz's surprised eyes, ice began to

form in Tora's hands, taking a long, cylindrical shape.

 

"Wow..." Fire muttered. Ice clearly had some

very idealized ideas of a man's penis. But this

surely had potential.

 

 

 

*******************************************

 

 

 

"What? You flared? Again? In Ice's room?" asked

Beetle incredulously, while water fell all around them

from the sprinklers on the corridor's ceiling. "Why?"

 

"It just happened, ok?" Fire answered irritably.

"You think I wanted to torch Ice's room, too?"

 

"Man, first you incinerate your whole room over

a cat, and a day later-"

 

"It startled me! It was a damn ugly cat!"

 

"Well, Gardner's ugly as sin, too, and I don't

see you freaking around him," Beetle countered. "Not

more than we all do, anyway."

 

"Don't pick on Guy," Ice complained timidly,

trying hard to cover herself from head to toe with

the charred remains of her comforter. "This wasn't

his fault. I..."

 

"I had just cleaned!" protested Beetle. "Now

the whole Embassy is soaked again!"

 

"You think I enjoyed burning up everything I

owned?" Fire asked, trying to keep in place the skimpy

towel barely covering her.

 

"Maybe you did it just to have an excuse to go

shopping again!"

 

"Shopping? I spent my last dime yesterday! I

can't even afford lipstick!"

 

"Oh, Bea, I am so sorry..." Ice said, looking

down, her face flushed.

 

"Oh, seems like Kilowog found the controls

already," Beetle said, as the water stopped, looking

up redundantly.

 

"Tora, it wasn't your fault, I - Oh, mierda! I

burned all your stuff too. Now we don't have a

fucking thing to put on!"

 

"You really didn't fit into my things, anyway.

You really stretched all those tops..."

 

"Yeah, whatever," said Beetle. "I'll get you

gals some robes or something. Jeez, Max's really

going to love this."

 

Fire looked incredulously as Beetle hurried

down the corridor, going for the stairs.

 

"Something's wrong."

 

"You'll soon learn to control your newly

enhanced powers, Bea, I'm sure."

 

"I didn't mean that," Fire said, frowning. "I'm

standing here all wet, buck naked but for a towel that

barely covers half my tits, I say that we have both

become enforced nudists... And Beetle runs off to find

us something to put on? That doesn't make any sense."

 

"I think it's very nice of him..."

 

"Exactly. That's why it's all wrong."

 

"Why?"

 

"That idiot has never missed the smallest chance

to leer at some exposed flesh, and now he's a perfect

gentleman? Just what the hell is happening here?"


	4. Something's Wrong In This House Today

"Here, have a towel."

 

"No, have this one, please."

 

"Mine's cleaner!"

 

"Thank you both," Wonder Woman said politely,

taking Booster's offering.

 

"See? Women just despise pathetic grovelers,"

a smiling Booster whispered to Beetle. "You'll never

get any being desperate."

 

"Diana, I'll take you to your room and you can

change there," said J'onn, glowering at Booster and

Beetle. "Some people should get busy before there is

serious water damage."

 

"You alone are dry, J'onn," Princess Diana said,

raising an eyebrow.

 

"Oh, sorry. As a Martian, it still feels a bit

of an extravagant indulgence to be all wet, so I must

have unconsciously shielded myself psychokinetically."

 

"See? That finally explains the smell!" Beetle

said with a grin, turning towards Booster.

 

"Allow me to apologize, Diana. I should have

kept you and the others dry, too," J'onn continued.

 

"My Armani would have been grateful..." mumbled

Maxwell Lord, walking off, towel in hand.

 

"Well! It figures!" said Fire, walking in,

wearing a white terry-cloth bathrobe that may have

fit her at age ten. The stare she leveled at the

Amazon Princess could have easily withered up

plant life or livestock.

 

"I can dry you off with my power ring, Toots,"

said Guy Gardner, looking over the wet Amazon. "Just

let me take off those wet things first and-"

 

"I knew it! I knew it!" Fire said.

 

"You could've used your ring to keep off the

water in the first place, Guy," Oberon interrupted,

rather miffed that the sudden shower had not improved

at all his embarrassing condition. "Made a giant

green umbrella or something. Of course that would

have required brains, so..."

 

"You onna death wish, Half-Pint?" Guy snarled.

"Or did the water shrink your wits to match your body?"

 

>>>>ENOUGH!<<<< broadcasted the Manhunter in

the telepathic equivalent of a slap, making all the

Leaguers present wince.

 

"Please follow me, Diana," J'onn said in a soft

voice amidst the sudden silence. "I hope you can

forgive this childish behavior. The Earthling male

brain seem to instantly turn off in the presence of

a beautiful woman."

 

"No problem," Diana replied, blushing, as she

began to walk up the main stairs.

 

J'onn J'onzz stood still for an instant, before

following the Amazon.

 

*'Beautiful woman'? Did I really say that?*

J'onn asked himself with embarrassed amazement.

 

"I'll go fix up some hot chocolate for her,"

said Beetle, running for the kitchen.

 

"An omelet! You can never go wrong with an

omelet!" added Booster, following him.

 

"Ah, fuck it," spat Gardner. "My beer's getting

warm. I'll better deal with it."

 

"Good riddance," Oberon said. "I'll go clean up,

maybe another shower... You comin', Scott?"

 

"Uh, ah, no..." said Mister Miracle, his full

bodysuit completely soaked. His eyes seemed unfocused,

and he seemed unable to decide on which foot to

settle his weight.

 

"Oberon, dear," said Fire, with a mischievous

smile that would have made Mae West proud. "I took

this robe from your closet. I hope you don't mind."

 

"Mmm? Oh, sure. Use it."

 

"How does it look on me?," she asked, leaning

forward and to a side, displaying generous amounts of

 

"Oh, fine, I guess," Oberon answered, shrugging.

"Excuse me, I'm getting cold."

 

"Oh, great. THANK YOU!" Beatriz spat, and began

to curse in gutter Portuguese through gritted teeth

while Oberon left.

 

"Was that Wonder Woman?" asked Ice as she

walked down the stairs, buttoning a loose-fitting

man's shirt over drawstring pajama pants patterned

with funny animals. "Gee, I had forgotten how tall

she is."

 

"What else could scramble like that the meager

brains of these prepubescent idiots?" Fire answered

dryly. "Silicone, baby, and lots of it."

 

"Silicone?"

 

"You bet."

 

"Bea, I don't think-"

 

"It's all silicone, believe me, I know that

subject," Fire huffed. "And she has no hips. Real

women should have hips."

 

"Really? She actually seems very curvy for such

an athletic type."

 

"HA! She's had enough liposuction to allow an

army of plastic surgeons early retirement. And look

at that outfit! Her tits must pop out every five

minutes. Doesn't that spell 'slut' to you?"

 

"Didn't you tell me that if you had it, you

should flaunt it?

 

"It's different! I was talking about US!"

 

"Why does she make you angry, Bea? I like her.

She's nice."

 

"OH, SURE! YOU TOO! EVERYONE THINKS SHE'S NICE!"

Fire said, smoke beginning to rise from her skin quite

literally. "I could walk in here naked, with 'Please

fuck me' tattooed on my ass, and they would all just

talk about HOW NICE SHE IS!"

 

"You don't need to be jealous, Bea." Ice said,

frowning with concern.

 

"Jealous? Me? Of that fat cow? DON'T MAKE ME

LAUGH!"

 

"But-"

 

"Those types are just image. I bet she's lousy in

bed. And all those Amazons are surely dykes, too!"

 

Ice looked at Fire for an instant, and then she

simply turned around and walked out.

 

*Oh, shit,* Fire thought, feeling like a complete

idiot. She stomped her bare foot on the wet carpet and

turned around to see Mister Miracle standing with a

lost look on his face.

 

"What the fuck are you looking at?"

 

"I am Scott Free, Mister Miracle, the world's

greatest-" he began uncertainly.

 

"I know that, you moron," Fire interrupted.

"Why're you standing there like an idiot? The nice

star-spangled girl get to you?"

 

"Excuse me?"

 

"Are you daydreaming about getting into Little

Ms. Perfect's starry panties, too?"

 

"No," he answered. "Should I?"

 

"You wouldn't want to bed Wonder Woman?"

 

"No. Should I?"

 

"So you don't think she's prettier than me?"

 

"No-"

 

"AT LAST! A man with good taste!"

 

"-Should I?"

 

"You bet NOT!"

 

Fire smiled, and got very, very close to him.

"You aren't saying that only 'cause you're married,

right?

 

"No. Should I?"

 

"So you wouldn't really prefer to sleep with

Wonder Woman there than with... let's say, me?"

 

"No. Should I?"

 

"You know, I'd never noticed before, but you're

kinda cute, besides being smart...," Fire said in a

low, throaty voice, running a finger over his broad

shoulders. "It's such a pity that you're married,

Scott, there're so many things I could've shown you."

 

"What things?"

 

"You're not afraid to find out?" Fire said,

letting her hand go lower.

 

"No. Should I?"

 

 

*******************************************

 

 

"Thank you, J'onn," Diana said with another of

her radiant smiles at the door. "I'll see you later."

 

"Uh, yes," J'onn said. He suddenly felt a strong

urge to offer help in unzipping her top, so he turned

around and left. "Later."

 

J'onn breathed out slowly as the guest room's

door closed behind him.

 

Kilowog was standing there, a strangely modified

vacuum in hand, as he sucked the moisture from the

carpeting. His Walkman was playing some Reggae.

 

"Got any Oreos?" J'onn asked.

 

"Sure," Kilowog answered, producing an opened

package from a pocket of his coveralls. "Still a few

there. Go easy on them."

 

J'onn sighed, nibbling on the cookie carefully,

mindful to make it last, knowing he had promised

himself to cut back.

 

"She's cute, eh?"

 

"Uh?"

 

"I mean, she's too damned thin, for sure. Needs

a couple hundred pounds more on them bones," Kilowog

said. "But I dunno, I still find her kinda cute.

Oh, well. Keep the stash, man." He shrugged and went

on, mumbling the words to a Marley song.

 

J'onn frowned. Kilowog found Diana 'cute'? The

massive alien's idea of cuteness started around Sumo

wrestler levels. This both relieved and worried him.

It meant Booster and Beetle were not getting to him

and he was not going crazy. There was indeed something

about Diana.

 

Entering his own room, J'onn fought off the

urge to finish the Oreos, sat down lotus-like on his

bed, relaxing both mind and body, letting his adopted

form revert to his true shape, as he let his vision

turn inwards.

 

Yes. The spark of desire was fading now, but it

was still there. It was a surprising realization.

 

As a Martian, J'onn had always lacked any

physical interest in human females. His shape-shifting

powers allowed him to mimic humanity exactly, and his

natural shape was basically humanoid, too, but even

the huge Kilowog was in many ways more human-like than

him. While Martian sexuality was also bipolar, it had

no fixed genders for individuals, and J'onn's typical

use of a male human-like shape was just a matter of

convenience. His being sexually attracted to a human

female was an absurd notion.

 

He was certainly not used to having an erection.

 

*Heavens, has it been THAT long?*

 

He had from their first meeting found Diana

very interesting, recognizing her as an extraordinary

individual. But it was one thing to admire her spirit

and another to feel crude physical attraction. Had it

always been there and he had noticed it only in the

present casual circumstances? It was all very disturbing.

 

Going deeper into his self, he sought to

isolate the exact source of the physical reaction,

but failed.

 

After some thought, he let his mind flow

outwards and sought Wonder Woman's room. He could

feel her mind there, clear and bright as always,

but he could not feel any telepathic coercion

field surrounding her.

 

This needed investigating. The League was

enough of a mess already. Sex could make everything

worse.


	5. That ol' black magic

"Just relax and enjoy it, honey."

 

Fire carefully lifted the soft penis, placing

her slightly opened mouth on its side, letting her

lips brush along its length as she moved slowly from

tip to base and back again, exhaling softly as she

did so, letting her breath caress the member as much

as her lips. She moved back slightly and placed the

member so its glans touched her red, pouting lips,

and proceeded to guide it over the contours of her

mouth, as if using a lipstick, finishing the caress

with a gentle touch of her tongue. She then slid her

tongue along the shaft's underside, from the tip, to

its fully hairless base, coating the hand span of soft

flesh with her saliva. As she ran her tongue along

the rim of the glans, delighting in its perfect

smoothness, she also noticed that his circumcision

was truly unnoticeable. It was as if the foreskin had

never existed at all.

 

She was pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness

of Mister Miracle's penis. It lacked the slightest

trace of those disagreeable smells or tastes of even

her most hygiene-conscious lovers, yet she didn't feel

the faint residues of soap and water of the recently

washed. Even the hairless scrotum tasted impeccably,

she noticed. And there were no evidences of shaving, either.

 

Thinking back with disgust at the filthy things

some morons had expected her to take in her mouth,

she could not help but relish such a perfectly kept

penis. Knowing men, it was indeed a miracle.

 

She teased it for a while longer, caressing

shaft and head with lips, tongue and hands, before

finally opening her mouth to take it inside. She

moved down on it, letting its length run over her

tongue, while her descending lips enclosed its

diameter, and then began to slide back and forth,

gently applying suction on it.

 

*Let's see that pampered Amazon beat me at

this,* Fire thought, as she worked her considerable

skills on Mister Miracle.

 

Yet he still remained soft.

 

Fire frowned. She had seen this before. Married

men often let their guilt get it the way.

 

"Don't worry, dear. It's ok. Just leave it to me."

 

It meant she had to work a bit harder, she

thought, and continued her ministrations with passion,

seeking to provide him with as much pleasure as possible.

 

Long minutes later, Mister Miracle's cock,

saliva dripping from its whole reddened length, slid

out of Fire's tired lips.

 

Still soft.

 

"Damn it! What is the matter with you?" she

protested, seething with frustration. Her tongue felt

leaden, her knees hurt from kneeling on the bare floor

of the linen closet, and still this sorry piece of

dead cock failed to react. "Do you know how many men

would dream of having me blow them?"

 

"No. How many?"

 

"Lots! LOTS! Look at me! I'm HOT!" Fire raged,

stiffly getting up. "Are you fucking impotent or

what? No wonder Barda looks pissed all the time!"

 

"Impotent? No. I am fully functional."

 

"Yeah? Then get that cock hard, dammit!"

 

"As you wish."

 

Fire's eyes opened wide.

 

"Wow. That's better. That's a LOT better!"

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"Jeez... What did you cook? A mastodon?" Oberon

asked in disbelief. When Kilowog decided to cook, the

leftovers could feed the rest of them for a week. But

this seemed to hint that he may have been dieting

previously. "I didn't even know we had pots this big."

 

"It's for her, you know," Kilowog answered.

"She really needs to put some weight on."

 

 

*******************************************

 

 

 

Princess Diana was nude, as she often was when

alone, down on the carpeted floor, legs spread out

casually in a 180 degrees stretch, her torso bent

forward at the waist, back arched, as she leaned on

her elbows, reading with interest the copy of Tsu

Tzun's ART OF WAR open on the floor before her. She

wondered if Maxwell Lord could help her get a copy in

the original Mandarin language.

 

As she heard the knocking on the door, she rose

up in one single, fluid motion. With thoughtless

grace, she took from a chair a white T-shirt and

denim shorts, and slid them on, before striding to

the door.

 

"Oh, hello, Oberon."

 

"Uh, he-hello, Princess," Oberon stammered,

looking up, hands discreetly on his lap.

 

*Oh, boy. She's not wearing a bra.*

 

"Diana," she reminded him, with a smile.

 

"Diana, yes. Dinner'll be ready inna short

while," he said, trying to find something to look at

on his shoes without seeming rude. "I, uh, everyone,

was wondering if you'd join us."

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"Damn. She's not wearing a bra," Beetle

whispered, immediately zooming in on the image on the

corridor's monitor screen.

 

"She clearly doesn't need a bra," Booster added,

 

"Those are the air conditioning controls. Yeah,

those. See if you can make it colder in there.*

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"Oh, yes. Thank you. I'll be glad to," Diana

answered. "Just let me get dressed less casually."

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"NO! NO! NO!"

 

"YOU'RE FINE LIKE THAT!"

 

"YOU BET SHE'S FINE!"

 

"OH, CRAP! DON'T CLOSE THE DOOR!"

 

"Damn..." breathed out Beetle.

 

"Damn..." agreed Booster.

 

"We need to get cameras on that room."

 

"Shit, man! She must be changing right now.

She may even be about to shower!"

 

"Hum..."

 

"Hum what?"

 

"I still have the mini-cam they took off

Fire's shower."

 

"So, what are you thinking about?"

 

"You remember Porky's, and all those

sexploitation flicks?"

 

"I know my classics. So?"

 

 

**************************************

 

 

Oberon walked down the corridor, wiping sweat

off his wide forehead.

 

*Somebody really has to tell that girl that she

needs looser clothing. MUCH looser clothing.*

 

He stopped, startled, as he heard a loud noise

somewhere to his right.

 

*The linen closet?*

 

He tried to open the door but it was locked.

He frowned, and scratched behind his left ear. He did

not remember locking it. With a shrug, he went on.

Surely no self-respecting supervillain would hide in

the linen closet.

 

*Hopefully it ain't that damned cat, making a

mess again.*

 

 

**************************************

 

 

Fire tried hard to catch her breath, holding on

with effort to the shelves, rumpled sheets and towels

scattered all around her, drenched with her sweat.

 

Her legs felt about to cramp.

 

"Oh-My-God," she gasped in Portuguese, looking

down in disbelief. "You're still hard?"

 

"Yes. Shouldn't I?"

 

"No-no! I'm not complaining! Just let me get

my second wind... ! Is everyone on New Genesis like

this?"

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"Beetle, do you copy me?"

 

"Shut the fuck up!" whispered Beetle. "The volume

control's busted. You almost took my ear off."

 

"Position?"

 

"What do you think this is? Mission Impossible? I'm

now over the drop ceiling. The bathroom is right below."

 

"Is she in?"

 

"Nope. Empty," Beetle replied on his mask-mounted

mike, trying to hold on to the utility piping while

removing a mini-drill from his tool belt. "I'm drilling

through the ceiling. Ok. Placing the camera. Check the

range."

 

"Ok. I have a clear view. Good work. Now get outta

there."

 

"Going. Ouch!"

 

"What?"

 

"Hit my head. Damn, why did I have to this instead

of you?"

 

"I can't even program the VCR, remember? Besides,

don't Beetles crawl through cracks and things?"

 

"I'll crawl up your crack if you don't pipe down.

OWWW! Shit! Hit an elbow."

 

"What about proportionate Beetle strength and

agility?"

 

"It's just a costume, you moron. You're thinking

about the Spider guy in the comics."

 

"Oh, yeah. The one with a supermodel wife he leaves

alone at night."

 

"AH! Sucker!" both said at once.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"Diana, could we talk for a minute?" said J'onn

J'onzz, catching up with Wonder Woman near the stairs.

"In private?"

 

"Sure," answered Diana, raising an eyebrow. "Is

there any problem?"

 

J'onn glanced at her. She had her long hair in

a simple ponytail, and was wearing plain sandals,

denim jeans that fit loose around her waist yet were

tight around her muscular thighs and buttocks, and a

flowing white loose blouse to accommodate her full bust

and wide back.

 

*She is not wearing a brassiere.*

 

"Um, not yet.. not really. There's just something

I'd like to discuss, a somewhat personal matter..."

 

"Oh, alright. Should we go back to my room?"

 

J'onn blinked twice.

 

"Uh, the meeting room will do better, I think."

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"It's too late. She must have gone in before

you got it set," Booster said. "Search the corridors

instead."

 

"Wait! Door's opening!"

 

The screen showed a figure walk in, wearing only

a thong-like bottom, and sporting a reddish bowl-haircut.

 

"THAT'S GARDNER, YOU IDIOT! YOU FUCKED UP! YOU

GOT THE WRONG BATH!

 

"Oh, shit."

 

"YOU SUCK!"

 

"OH, YEAH? YOU GET UP THERE NEXT TIME!"

 

"YOU BET I'LL...! - Wait, what's Guy doing?"

 

"Let me zoom in," Beetle said, grumbling.

"He's... Oh, man."

 

"That's pathetic..."

 

"Lousy technique, too."

 

"Is that BIG JUGS magazine?"

 

"Why, I didn't figure you for a connoisseur."

 

"Turn that off, man. It sickens me."

 

"I dunno, it's got car wreck appeal. What's

that he's doing now-? OH, MAN! LOOK AT THAT!"

 

"AGH, GROSS!"

 

"THAT'S SICK!"

 

"I think I'm gonna barf..."

 

"Man, I thought nothing Gardner did could ever

surprise me, but..."

 

"You are recording this, right?"

 

"You bet."

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"So your metahuman powers are mystically based?"

 

"The gods of Olympus blessed me at birth," Diana

explained. "Demeter, Hestia, Aphrodite, Artemis, Palas

Athena, and Hermes gave me gifts of power: strength,

speed, flight, endurance, to be used upon need."

 

"You need to call on these 'gifts', then?"

 

"I will them into action, yes. Some, like

resistance to injury, I have learned to summon

automatically."

 

"These are all physical manifestations," J'onn

said, thoughtfully. "But my understanding is that

the entities of the Greek Pantheon also represented

other qualities."

 

"Yes, of course. So?"

 

"Have you noticed that men behave oddly around

you, Diana?"

 

Diana frowned. "Most of men's behavior seems

odd to me, J'onn. Stupid and self-destructive. That

is why I'm here in Patriarch's World, after all."

 

"Yes, but... Well, I meant..." J'onn began,

seeking the right words. "Have you noticed that men

react very strongly to you - physically...?"

 

"Oh! Sexually, you mean?"

 

J'onn felt his face turn warm. "Um, yes."

 

"Of course I notice it," Diana replied, smiling.

"I found it baffling at first, even embarrassing. But

I'm getting used to it. Why?"

 

"Don't you find it strange?"

 

"Mother warned me that Men had only one thing

in mind," she shrugged. "For such a simplistic

generalization, it was quite accurate. It's rather

humorous, really."

 

"But you realize that not all women produce

such an effect?"

 

"Isn't that normal, too? Being somewhat more

attractive than the average person is what makes

most celebrities popular, no?" Diana said. "I'm told

that my appearance falls within those parameters

currently deemed aesthetically pleasing, so I assume

that also may make me sexually desirable, no?"

 

"Uh, yes... It does."

 

"So? Is that wrong?"

 

"No, but..."

 

"Should people be ashamed of gifts they were

born with? Should geniuses hide their intelligence?

Are you ashamed of your powers, J'onn?"

 

"No."

 

"So people like how I look? It doesn't bother

me. It's hardly relevant to my goals, so it's just a

frivolous concern, isn't it?"

 

"I suppose.."

 

"I appreciate physical beauty myself, but it is

hardly essential. There are many attributes of much

greater importance, even regarding sexuality."

 

"Well..."

 

"Appearance is really very overestimated in

this image-fixated culture. I mean, why would the

size of my breasts ensure that I was a better sexual

partner?"

 

"Uh, good question..." mumbled J'onn.

 

"Penis size is much more directly related to

actual sexual intercourse, and while I do find such

a quality arousing, neither is it a certain

guarantee of good sex."

 

"Ah.. eh..." J'onn began, floundering for words.

 

"I suspect that many of man's problems stem

from such absurd valorizations. Frustrated desires

follow misguided priorities. It all may produce the

increased territorial behavior and irrationality

that leads to most violence. Don't you find it so?"

 

"Ah... Well," J'onn said. "I had never thought

you would be so outspoken on these matters, Diana."

 

"J'onn, you have an outsider's view, as I do.

Surely you too can see the narrowmindness of most of

the cultural mores of Man's World."

 

"Yes, but..."

 

"You do have a very attractive body yourself.

Big, powerfully built, with beautiful symmetry. And

you have many other attributes equally attractive,

like nobility, intelligence..." Diana said, casually,

while J'onn felt the room suddenly become very, very

hot. "I, or any other woman, can easily desire you

sexually. Has this ever bothered you?"

 

J'onn was speechless for an instant, before

mumbling: "No, but..."

 

"It doesn't bother me, either," Diana concluded

with a smile.

 

"Ahem... There's precisely where I wanted to

arrive... Ah, not at that you may..." he added

hastily. "I mean, I can see that you are have many,

ah, physical assets any human would appreciate, as

well as admirable spiritual qualities, but as a

Martian I have no physical interest in Earth females,

yet..."

 

"You don't?" Diana asked, frowning. "Curious.

You seem so human-like anatomically. Does Martian sex

also involve penetration and internal fertilization?"

 

"Yes... It is a similar act, mostly."

 

"And is sex also practiced among your kind for

pleasure as well as for reproduction?"

 

"Yes, but Diana, this is digressing..."

 

"I understand that being from another planet,

you are biologically a different species, so you could

not miscegenate with Earth women, but you do look so

much more compatible than Earthly creatures with whom

interspecies sex is physically possible, procreation

aside."

 

*That certainly falls into the 'way too much

information' header,* J'onn thought nervously.

 

"You have never felt any sexual interest in

your League teammates?"

 

"What?"

 

"Ice has a very fetching, delicate beauty, and

Fire has an earthly, primal sexuality that is hard

to ignore. I think both are very attractive. You have

never wondered...?"

 

"Never!" said J'onn, shocked, both by her

question, and by the surprising realization that the

idea of Diana with another woman seemed strangely

 

"Are we biologically repulsive to you?"

 

"I didn't mean that!" J'onn said. "I'm just not

interested in women."

 

"Oh, so you prefer men?"

 

"No, it is the same thing," J'onn sighed. He

was getting a sizable headache. "What I mean is that

I shouldn't feel any attraction towards any Earthling

at all, yet I do. Now."

 

"Now? Oh," Diana said, raising an eyebrow as she

looked slightly down. "Oh. I see."

 

J'onn crossed his legs, self-consciously placing

his hands on his lap.

 

"Yes, and it worries me."

 

"Why? Is it a bad thing?" Diana asked, smiling

like it certainly failed to look like a bad thing to her.

 

"It means that there is some kind of influence

affecting my mind."

 

"But isn't that how it all normally works, no?"

 

"It shouldn't work on me. Or on Kilowog."

 

"Kilowog? The big, big one? Him, too?"

 

"Yes."

 

Diana arched her eyebrows. "Oh. Interesting."

 

"You mentioned that among those who endowed you

with paranormal powers, was Aphrodite, no? The Greek

goddess of love and beauty?"

 

"Yes. Are you thinking-?"

 

"That you may have received from this entity

um, more extensive gifts that just apparent physical

beauty." J'onn explained. "There may be some kind of

paranormal coercive field that affects all living

beings around you, perhaps through passive, traceless

mental suggestion, since pheromones would be less

effective on non-humans."

 

"Well, that could explain some things," Diana

said, thoughtfully, before smiling at some inner

recollection. "So, why is this a problem?"

 

"Excuse me?"

 

"Why does this trouble you?

 

"It doesn't bother you?"

 

"Among my tasks in Man's World, is helping to

promote love among man. My powers are for better

achieving my tasks," Diana said, standing up. "If

Aphrodite found convenient to give such a harmless

gift, why should I question it?"

 

"Harmless?" J'onn asked standing up. He thought

better of it, and sat down back again. "Diana, surely

you cannot feel at ease knowing that. Temptation can

be truly disturbing to those around you."

 

"I understand, J'onn. But you need not worry,"

said Diana, walking towards the door. "I will not

stay with the League longer than needed. My work is

my priority."

 

"Diana, that is not what I tried to-"

 

"But you know what the poet and playwright

Wilde said regarding temptation, no?" she asked at

the door, with a smile.

 

"What?"

 

"That to banish it, it must be indulged."

 

And then the sprinklers turned on again.

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"OH, GREAT! So now we're out of sheets, too!"

Oberon said, soaking wet.


	6. Love and marriage...

"Do you think that Scott...? You know..."

 

"Naah. He's too nice to fool around, and

Barda really has him by the short hairs," Booster

said. "He must've touched Fire's butt by accident

and she freaked out. That boy needs to be properly

taught the exact art of accidental butt touching."

 

"Yeah, Obi-Wan."

 

"Anyway, I think Scott has enough woman at

home to keep him busy. Lucky guy must need every bit

of energy available to keep that girl happy."

 

"I dunno. Barda's a bit hard for my taste,"

Beetle said. "Great tits and all, sure, but I'd be

nervous with a woman who could easily beat me up

every night."

 

"Didn't you use to pay for that sort of thing?"

 

 

**************************************

 

 

The small, shingle-roofed, two-bedroom house

was unremarkable in every way. Even the obsessively

clean and ordered lawn hinted at nothing more than

the typical concerns of suburbia. There was nothing

to indicate that the place was home to illegal

aliens, and not precisely south-of-the-border ones.

 

Scott Free's figure materialized inside the

clear Plexiglas tube of the JLI transporter. The

high-tech teleportation device was located inside

the kitchen's pantry, since it interfered with TV

reception if placed in the living room.

 

He looked around with clear puzzlement before

he realized that he was in a small storage area, and

stepped out into the kitchen, wondering why did

everyone insist in his being inside similar small,

closed quarters.

 

He was dressed in borrowed white loafers, faded

jeans, a Grateful Dead T-shirt, and a pink windbreaker.

Blue Beetle had insisted that such a combination would

reflect highly on his discriminating taste.

 

"Honey. I'm home," he said, as the records of

Earth customs indicated he should.

 

The dark-haired woman who entered the kitchen,

easily a head taller than him, reacted with obvious

surprise. Maybe the blue velvet cowboy hat had been

too much, he considered.

 

"Scott, dear! I thought you were out of town!

You said you would call!"

 

"Long distance calls are not covered."

 

The woman rushed and hugged him with barely

less strength than an hydraulic metal compactor, her

thick, heavily muscled arms easily lifting him in her

embrace, crushing him against her large breasts.

 

"Did anything go wrong at the tour? I told you

to fire that incompetent agent."

 

"Everything is under control."

 

"Why are you dressed like that? You lost a bet

with those two jerks again?"

 

"You do not like it?"

 

Barda knew that in Apokolips, someone wearing

that would be shot on sight and then thrown to the

Hounds. Or the other way around. Her eyes narrowed,

the Apokolipsian soldier displacing the loving wife

in an instant. "What the fuck happened? How come your

eyebrows are gone?"

 

"There was a fire."

 

"Darkseid's piss! Did you get hurt? Let me look

at you!"

 

"Only my costume was damaged."

 

"Did Blue Beetle and Booster Gold perish horribly?"

 

"No."

 

"Ah, well, next time, perhaps..."

 

"I came to retrieve another costume. There were

none at the Embassy."

 

"OF COURSE! You could not drop by just to see

me, could you? After all, I'm only your wife! AAARH!

You men are all the same!"

 

He blinked, examining the options available, as

she left the room in clear anger. Having the wife

angry was not convenient. The woman called Fire had

also been very angry, yet she had calmed down after

engaging in sexual activity. Learning from experience

was most useful in these situations.

 

Wasting no time, he proceeded to disrobe.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"OH-MY-GOD! OH-MY-GOD! OH-MY-GOD!"

 

"Mister Free! I'm Eugene Jacobs from across the

street. Please open up!"

 

He could hear the voices coming from the house,

so he knew they were in. This time they would get a

piece of his mind. Sure, Brutus had done his business

again on their lawn, but what kind of people could

throw a poor, defenseless, Great Dane right across the

street to land on the garage roof?

 

"OH-MY-GOD! YES! YES! OH-MY-GOD!"

 

"Mister Free! All this screaming is truly

intolerable!" he called out after further knocking and

ringing the doorbell produced no results. He cared not

if they were in the middle of some born-again Christian

thing. He had to get an apology.

 

"GO AWAY!"

 

That had to be the wife. He usually heard her

shouting at least once a day. The language on that

woman was abominable.

 

"MISTER FREE! OPEN UP!"

 

"GO AWAY, DAMN IT!"

 

"I DEMAND AN APOLOGY!"

 

"FUCK OFF!"

 

"What-? FUCK YOU!" he countered in indignation.

"OPEN UP, LADY! I DON'T CARE HOW MANY STEROIDS THE

NEIGHBORS SAY YOU DO! YOU CANNOT SCARE-!"

 

The door suddenly opened with a power that

almost ripped off his hairpiece through air suction.

Standing in the door was Barda, wearing nothing but

sweat and a very angry expression.

 

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?"

 

Eugene Jacobs's mind was sent back decades, to

a time when everything was too big and complex to

understand, and his parents were the biggest and

scariest people in the world. He tried to speak, but

his mouth had better survival instincts than the rest

of him, and it remained wisely shut.

 

"BY DARKSEID'S FARTS, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?

AREN'T YOU ARE THE OWNER OF THAT SHIT-SPILLING DOG!"

 

Unfortunately, his eyes and hands had their own

little death wish, so while his eyes glanced about,

unsure of whether to stare at the large round breasts

heaving inches before and above his face, or at the

perfectly shaven pubis crowning the two marble pillars

of her legs, his hands decided to reach out and touch

both to help with the decision.

 

Hours later, the fire department brought him

down from his garage roof.

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"Holy shit..." mumbled Oberon.

 

"Wait, it gets worse," Booster said, handing a

beer to Beetle, who passed the Doritos in return.

 

"How the hell did ya two record this?"

 

"What do you think? We sell it to Hard Copy or

not?"

 

"Now, you can't do that to a fellow Leaguer. Max

would... OH, MAN! THAT'S SICK!"

 

"Want some Doritos?" offered Booster.

 

"Can't we sell copies at a comic convention or

something?" Beetle asked.

 

"Sorry, you just can't make a profit off this."

 

"Aw, crap..."

 

"Nothing can stop you from posting it on the

Internet, though..."


	7. There's Evil Brewing

His mind found the first one easily, among the

millions of insignificant, doomed vermin infesting

the planet. He had traveled through countless miles

of space from the system's outer planets, and a few

tons of brick and metal in his path were as nothing to him.

 

He stood among the wreckage, his body already

grown to full-power, suckled on the milk of his hate,

enormous muscles bulging beneath blood-red skin.

 

What the sight of his third eye told him just

enraged him even more. The so-called hero named Steel,

the Cyborg member of the Justice League, was no more.

The spark of stubborn life barely flickered in the

remaining flesh hooked to a multitude of machines,

like the echo of a forgotten question. No sentient

mind answered his probes.

 

He roared his frustration. The countless others

dead around him were deaf to his curses.

 

His hate needed expression. The Justice League

had to pay for his defeat, for the agonizing,

maddening torture suffered as his mind was scattered

across space, almost to the point of oblivion. Only

the purity of his hate had allowed his mind to endure,

and his lust for revenge had brought him back, but the

Justice Leaguer Steel could no longer provide him with

satisfaction.

 

Destroying the life-support machines with

savage fury, he tore apart Steel's pathetic remains.

But even as he raged, a horrible smile began to take

shape in his mouth, baring the myriad sharp,

spike-thin teeth.

 

The other members of the Justice League were

still there. Alive. He could sense them. And they

would not escape his wrath as easily as Steel had.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"Oberon, have you seen Sco-Uh, Mister Miracle?"

 

"Barda called in early to excuse him," Oberon

answered dryly from his monitor duty chair, not

looking up from the screens. "Said he'd be busy at

home all day."

 

"Oh," Fire said, nervously. "It's really quiet

here today. Where's everyone?"

 

"Well, I saw the grocer's truck arrive earlier,

so Kilowog's cooking again," Oberon said. "Max left

earlier for Metropolis, and J'onn retired to meditate,

to be disturbed only for alien invasions, the end of

the world, or tea, whichever comes first. Booster and

Beetle went to an United Nations conference..."

 

"Those two? At an UN conference? Will there be

free food or what?"

 

"Princess Diana is giving an address there for

UNICEF. On aid programs for third world children, I

think-"

 

"Oh, sure! The Nice Princess will be there, so

they go too! What's next? The opera?"

 

"Bea?""

 

"And... Tora?"

 

"Ice said she had some shopping to do, so Guy

took her to Bloomingdale's or somewhere."

 

"WHAT? Tora's out with Guy? Why didn't you warn

me?" Fire asked incredulously.

 

"Bea, she's a grown girl. She doesn't need ya ta

watch over her alluva time."

 

"She's out with GUY GARDNER."

 

"Good point." Oberon conceded.

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"-can be done. If this aid package is routed

not through the corrupt and politicized local

government channels, but through nonprofit

foundations overseen directly by UNICEF, using this

allocation plan, we estimate that current efforts can

be improved in over two hundred percent, allowing the

children malnutrition index in Honduras alone to

decrease by-"

 

Representatives of the world's richest, most

powerful nations sat at the Assembly Hall, their

eyes fixed on the young woman dressed in flowing,

Hellenic ceremonial robes, who stood before them.

Their interest was uncharacteristically unwavering as

her melodious voice carefully explained the complex

strategies she had helped develop. Most of them nodded

thoughtfully throughout, apparently deeply concentrated

on the ideas expounded. Others discussed among them in

hushed tones with serious consideration.

 

*Joder, la tia no usa sosten... Y mira que esta

buena...* thought the Spanish delegate.

 

"No brassiere! Etonnant!" the French delegate

whispered to the Belgian one, who nodded in agreement.

 

*Assuredly she's not wearing knickers, either,*

muttered the British delegate.

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

The signal device rang insistently.

 

"Let it ring. You have work to do."

 

"Answering the Justice League signal device

is a priority action. Hello, I am Scott Free, Mister

Miracle, the-"

 

#For God's sake, Scott! Cut it out!# Oberon's

voice said. #Teleport over here on the double! We

have a BIG situation!#

 

"WHAT? SO I AM NOT A PRIORITY?" Barda cried out.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

It had seemed like just another pleasantly

normal day. She had left school, joked a bit with

some friends on the way and finally arrived home.

To find her life destroyed.

 

Gypsy tried hard not to think of what she had

seen. She tried hard to keep back her tears. But some

things could not be denied. She saw again her parents,

in the wreck of the living room, unmoving. It was too

much to bear.

 

"YOU CANNOT HIDE FROM ME, CHILD," he said, his

voice filling the air like a tangible presence. "I

CAN SENSE YOU."

 

It was her fault, she told herself, as sobs

shook her slender body. She had thought her past

forgotten. She had wanted so hard to believe that she

could be just another typical teenager. But the past

had come looking for her.

 

"YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME. I AM HATE. I AM DEATH."

 

Gypsy's camouflage powers had kept her alive,

aided by the skills she had learned from her time of

living on the streets and her brief membership in the

Justice League. Her family had not been so lucky.

 

She had brought him to them. It was all her fault.

 

"SHOW YOURSELF, GIRL, OR EVERYONE HERE WILL DIE."

 

He had already laid waste to half the town. The

train she had tried to escape on was now derailed,

wrecked. He would get to her friends and neighbors.

 

She knew that she could not let anyone else die.

She had to do it for them.

 

"Despero..." she called out with ragged breath,

holding back her sobs, as she let light flow normally

around her, her camouflage field gone. "Don't. I'm

here. Don't hurt anyone else..."

 

The hulking creature stood before her, his

massive shape dwarfing her fragile figure. The third

eye below his ridged crest glowed with an unholy

malevolence.

 

"Time to die," Despero hissed with a hideous smile.

 

>>>NO!<<<

 

Gypsy looked up, and her tears flowed again,

unrestrained, but this time with savage relief, as

the echo of the telepathic voice soothed her. Now it

would all be alright.

 

J'onn was here.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"This had to happen before we could get to the

free buffet, I knew it," Beetle complained, strapping

himself to the pilot chair of the Justice League's airship.

 

"Those robes were really something else, eh?"

Booster said. "She seemed to have everyone pretty well

convinced, too."

 

"You don't skip free food. It's just wrong."

 

"Come on, man. Sure, we are broke, but we get

all we can eat at the Embassy, specially if Kilowog's

cooking."

 

"It's a matter of principle," Beetle muttered.

"Everyone belted down? Ok. We're off."

 

"Did he do ANYTHING? Go on, tell me. Anything

at all?"

 

"Guy took me shopping, that's all, Bea," Ice

said with a sigh. "How many times must I tell you?

Why must you get so worked up?"

 

"How serious is this?" Booster asked.

 

"Very. J'onn flew ahead on his own. I think he

was really worried."

 

"J'onn was worried?"

 

"Yep."

 

"Oh, shit."

 

"You managed to contact Captain Atom yet?"

 

"Nope. The European Embassy's not answering."

 

"Damn. We could use the reinforcements."

 

"You don't need that shiny moron," Guy Gardner

cut in. "Ya'll have right here America's greatest

hero, remember?"

 

"Whatever you say, Guy."

 

"Hello, I am Scott Free, Mister-"

 

"Put a sock in it," Guy Gardner replied.

 

"In what?"

 

"Fuck off, Mister."

 

"You seem angry."

 

"I'd almost talked Ice into tryin' on this

lacy little thing and ya jerks hadda call..."

 

"Would you like to stop being angry?"

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"YOU! YOU WILL PAY!"

 

Despero hurled himself at the Martian Manhunter,

his enormous bulk making even the Martian's tall and

heavily muscled body seem puny.

 

But J'onn was ready. His feet were spread wide,

his psychokinesis focused on leveraging him against

the ground, as he swung his right arm in a powerful

arc, dense Martian muscles aided by psychokinetic

enhancement and the shape-shifting of isolated masses

contracting to deliver an Earth-shaking punch .

 

The blow struck Despero mid-air with the sound

of thunder, and sent him to crash against a hill half

a mile away, dozens of shattered trees left in his path.

 

Despero stood up and smiled.

 

"THIS WILL BE FUN, MARTIAN."


	8. There'll be a price to pay

"JUST GET HIM AWAY FROM ME!"

 

"Damn it, Guy! We're on a mission! You can't go

picking fights with other Leaguers!" Booster said, his

force field keeping Guy restrained.

 

"HE TOUCHED ME!"

 

"Oh, for crying out loud! Don't be ridiculous!"

 

"Are you hurt?" Fire asked, kneeling on the

airship's floor next to Mister Miracle's fallen figure,

cradling his head to her bosom.

 

"Should I?"

 

"Please tell me you aren't hurt."

 

"I am not hurt."

 

"He-He wanted to-to-"

 

"Look Guy, why don't you just fly ahead to

help J'onn?" Beetle suggested.

 

"Yeah, anything to get away from that-"

 

"Just go!"

 

"I knew, I knew it," Guy said, heading for the

exit hatch. "No one straight could wear that yellow

and red costume..."

 

"SCOTT'S ALL MAN, YOU CABRON!" Fire shouted at

him. "I KNOW THAT FOR SUR-"

 

"Bea?" asked Tora, her eyes wide open.

 

Beetle and Booster looked at each other,

eyebrows raised beneath their masks.

 

"O-key..." they said in unison.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

J'onn winced in pain as Despero's blow struck

him, sending him to his knees. It took all of his

psychokinetic power to keep the following punch from

taking his head clean off.

 

"J'onn?" Gypsy asked, her voice trembling with

worry. Despero had seemed to take all that the

Martian Manhunter could dish out, and was returning

it, with interest.

 

>>>Gypsy, get away.<<< J'onn far-spoke, trying

to get back to his feet while Despero approached him

again. The creature was smiling, J'onn saw. He had

forgotten how powerful Despero was.

 

"I won't leave you!"

 

>>>I'll be fine. Get yourself to safety.<<<

J'onn assured her, even as Despero's kick sent him

to crash against an overturned train wagon.

 

"But..."

 

>>>NOW.<<< J'onn insisted. He could feel the

inner bleeding starting again. As a shapechanger, he

was completely aware of every part of his body, and

knew exactly what Despero's punishment was doing to

him. His body was busy repairing itself, ribs shifting

back to proper form and position, torn tissue mending,

but he could hardly concentrate on the healing while

fighting off his opponent.

 

"YOU GAVE ME FAIR SPORT, MARTIAN, BUT PLAYTIME

IS OVER."

 

Focusing his mind on the approaching brute,

J'onn struck hard with his PK power alone, making

Despero fall back gasping, clutching his throat.

 

Despero coughed twice, and smiled again.

 

>>>USING YOUR MIND, MARTIAN? TWO CAN PLAY THAT

GAME.<<<

 

J'onn J'onzz screamed.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"Bea! How could you? Scott's married!"

 

"I know, I know! I didn't plan to, ok? It just

happened."

 

"And right after we-?"

 

"Look, I was angry, and he was there. Just a

one-night stand kind of thing. It doesn't mean anything."

 

"Then you shall not require my presence at your

room tonight like you reque-?"

 

"Shut up, Scott!" Fire cut him off. "Tora, it

was just sex, ok? Don't-"

 

"Is it always just sex for you?"

 

"No!"

 

"Does it ever mean anything to you?"

 

"Tora, you know it does. You-I... Tora, you

know..."

 

"Yes?"

 

"You know I love you."

 

"Oh, Bea..." Ice said, her eyes clouding.

 

"I'm sorry," Fire said, embracing Ice. "I can

be such a bitch at times."

 

"Damn, that's so sweet," Beetle told Booster.

"Gotta a tissue?"

 

"PILOT THIS THING AND MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS,

YOU JERKS!" Fire shouted.

 

"Barda will kill you if she finds out." Ice

said, smiling at last.

 

Fire's eyes opened wide. "Shit, I hadn't

thought of that."

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"J'onn! Are you hurt? Talk to me!" Gypsy

cried, as her slender arms tried to embrace J'onn

wide back, while he trembled, fallen in fetal

position on the ground, his face twitching spastically.

 

"M-m-my m-m-mind-" J'onn stammered, his voice

barely a whisper. "He entered my m-mind..."

 

"YOU, NOW," Despero said, grabbing Gypsy by

the neck, and lifting the struggling girl with ease.

Glowing plasma began to coruscate around his baleful

third eye. "GOODBYE."

 

As the burst of destructive energy was released,

it was contained by a glowing green sphere that formed

around Despero's head.

 

"AARGH!!!" Despero screamed, releasing Gypsy.

A giant glowing green booted foot materialized from

thin air and kicked Despero, sending him through the

air in a great parabolic path.

 

"Who?" coughed Gypsy in confusion.

 

"Green Lantern at your service, babe," said

Guy Gardner, the power ring glowing on his hand.

 

"Green-?"

 

"Lantern, yep. Did the squeeze Red there gave ya

made ya deaf or what?"

 

"Wasn't Green Lantern taller, and much cuter?"

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"Gee, I never figured that Scott..." whispered

Booster.

 

"It's always the quiet ones," said Beetle

sagely.

 

"Barda's going to kill him."

 

"Wonder if I can get his room at the Embassy.

Much better view than mine."

 

"You keep the room, I'll go after the widow."

 

"Deal," agreed Beetle. "At least it's a relief

to know that Guy was blowing it off his ass as usual."

 

"Uh?"

 

"You know, about Scott being..."

 

"Oh. Well, I never thought Scott'd have such

lousy taste, anyway. But why would it be a relief?"

 

"Well, I'm not homophobic or anything, but..."

 

"And just 'cause of Fire? Look, Scott's from a

more advanced society, you know. Everyone is bisexual

in more developed cultures."

 

"Aw, stop pulling my leg."

 

"Yeah, man, stop being a troglodyte. Everyone

in the future I came from was bi, too."

 

"Everyone?"

 

"Sure."

 

"EVERYONE?"

 

"Hey! Did you see some red thing just fly by?"

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"J'onn, you can't! You're hurt!"

 

"I have to," J'onn said, staggering to his feet.

"He must be stopped."

 

"But-"

 

"Rest now, child," J'onn said, tenderly caressing

Gypsy's soot-stained face. "The nightmare will soon be

over. One way or the other."

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"Just why the hell Guy had to throw him at

New York?"

 

"Don't ask me. Damn! Booster! Shield those

people!" Beetle ordered through the comlink.

 

"There! Damn! GET THOSE PEOPLE OUTTA HERE!"

Booster shouted as the police herded people in

frantic attempts to evacuate the area.

 

"Oh, crap. Another building."

 

"I'm on it!" said Ice, forming columns of ice

to support damaged structures.

 

"Guy! Don't get close to him! For God's sake!

Don't fight hand to hand! Just bind or blast him

with your ring!"

 

"Why couldn't we get the real Green Lantern?"

Booster muttered. "The good one?"

 

"HEY! I HEARD THAT!" Gardner complained.

 

"Oh, fuck!" Beetle spat as Despero tackled

Gardner into Rockefeller Center. "Ice! Fire! Get

over there! Wait for Despero to come out!"

 

"Now who made you leader?" Fire said, her

flaming green figure flying to the spot.

 

"Bea, don't argue!" Beetle spat, running up a

flight of stairs, feeling every ounce of the extra

pounds he carried. Lack of actual powers and his

status as the League's regular pilot had kept him

mostly at the sidelines. Since Scott had offered to

man the JLI airship this time, Beetle could now feel

the results of his sedentary life. "I must get

Kilowog off the kitchen..." he muttered.

 

With a grunt of effort, Beetle vaulted over

the slab's edge. "Fire, as soon as he shows his red

naked butt through that hole, you barbecue him!"

 

"I tried that! My flame hurts the creep, but

it doesn't stop him!"

 

"Just do it! Ice, just after Fire toasts him,

you freeze his ass. The sudden temperature change

may knock him out!"

 

"Hey, that isn't a bad plan," Fire said, with

no little surprise.

 

"I'm immature, not stupid. We need teamwork

here or we'll get creamed."

 

"You don't think Guy will be able to beat him?"

asked Ice.

 

"HA!" Fire said.

 

"Fat chance!" Beetle agreed.

 

"That'll be the day." Booster added.

 

"Here they come!" screamed Beetle, as the

noise of the brawl below rose.

 

Suddenly, a green-nimbus-surrounded figure

was hurled through the roof slab, several meters

to a side of the original opening, barely missing

where Ice stood.

 

One second later, Despero erupted through yet

another spot, scattering chunks of concrete in his

wake. One of them hit Ice on the head, and she fell,

instantly unconscious.

 

"TORA!" Fire cried out.

 

"Shit. There goes the plan. Booster! Pick up

Ice! Take her to safety!"

 

"YOU GODDAMNED BASTARD!"

 

"AAARGHHH!" Despero screamed as an inferno of

green fire enveloped him.

 

"You motherfucker!" cried Fire, amidst a

barrage of Portuguese curses. "You hurt Tora! I'll-"

 

"WHAT? He hurt ICE?" asked Guy Gardner, as he

rejoined the fight. "THAT'S IT!"

 

Gritting his teeth, Gardner pointed his power

ring and channeled his furious will through it. A

blinding flash of green light suddenly lit all the

surroundings as the powerful plasma blast struck

Despero.

 

Despero grunted in pain, but refused to fall.

 

"ENOUGH," he spat.

 

"Guy! Keep your shields up while blasti-!"

 

Despero's third eye unleashed a fearsome energy

blast, and Guy Gardner fell unconscious.

 

"Guy's down!" Fire called out, while resuming

her own attack.

 

"Damn! How did he do that? Anyone read the

files on that ugly bastard?" Beetle asked. "Just

what can't that sucker do?"

 

"OH, SHIT!" Fire cried out as another plasma

burst barely missed her.

 

"Shit indeed," mumbled Booster. Despero barely

seemed to notice his wrist blasters' fire.

 

"Scott! Give us some air support here!"

 

"Despero is very angry, is he not?" Mister

Miracle's voice sounded over the comlink. "Maybe I-"

 

"Don't start! Use the airship's weaponry! Do

evasive maneuvers to distract him. Buy us some

fucking time!"

 

"As you wish. I believed this was not the

right time to fuck, though."

 

The JLI airship dove towards Despero, heavy

machine-guns blazing, the armor-piercing bullets

ricocheting off Despero's thick hide. Two short-

range missiles struck the creature full-on.

 

"ANOTHER GNAT," Despero sneered. His third eye

glowed.

 

The airship exploded.

 

"SCOTT!" Fire screamed. "NOOO!"

 

"Damn. There goes next year's budget," Beetle

grumbled. "Booster! Get Guy outta there!"

 

"BEETLE? SCOTT'S-"

 

"Scott got out just in time. That's what he

does, remember? Mister Miracle always escapes

somehow. Scott, report, please."

 

Despero roared in fury as Booster picked up

the unconscious Guy Gardner an instant before the

creature's energy blast destroyed the spot.

 

"Scott?"

 

"SCOTT?" echoed Fire.

 

"Oh, no," whispered Beetle, feeling a cold

dread run through him. "It can't be..."

 

"YOU FUCKER!" Fire cried out as she showered

Despero with flames.

 

"SHIT! SHIT! Where the hell are the damn

reinforcements? We need fucking Superman here!"

Booster said. "We can't beat a major villain alone!

We're just second stringers!"

 

"J'onn has more damn powers than Superman

himself, and he still got pulped," Beetle said,

feeling numbness creep in. "And you're the second

stringer. I'm just a guy in a costume. I don't

even rate."

 

"Doctor Fate, Captain Atom, Captain Marvel,

every damn heavyweight! We need major muscle or we're

all dead! OH, FUCK!"

 

"BOOSTER!"

 

Beetle could only gape as a building, whose

base Despero had just blasted, toppled, sending tons

of masonry falling over the surprised Booster.

 

"FALL, GODDAMMIT!" Fire shouted in desperation,

her powers straining to the outmost against Despero's

inhuman resilience.

 

"YOU FALL, WOMAN."

 

Fire gasped. A sledgehammer seemed to have

struck her mind. She blanked out, her flame-form

suddenly changing back to normal flesh-and-blood as

she fell.

 

"Oh, shi-!" Beetle began as he moved forward

in a futile rush to catch the falling girl, knowing

that he could never get there in time. Physics just

didn't give people those kinds of breaks.

 

"Uh?"

 

Beetle stood astonished as Fire's falling

figure slowed down for no apparent reason and came

to rest gently on the slab's surface. Almost

immediately, Despero grunted, bent over, twisted

to a side abruptly, and fell face down.

 

"WHAT-?" Despero began, starting to rise, just

before his head was thrown violently to a side, and

he began to clutch at his throat. His head began to

twist slowly, rotating on the thick neck slowly but

inexorably.

 

"What happened...?" mumbled a voice behind the

stunned Beetle.

 

He turned to see the dazed Fire clumsily getting

to her knees, shaking her head.

 

"Eh?" Fire said, as she saw Despero struggling

against empty air several paces away, his head being

wrenched around. "You Goddamned asshole..." she

muttered as she rose her hands, aiming.

 

"NOOOO!" shouted Beetle, running towards Fire.

"Don't you see-?"

 

Green fire shot from her hands towards Despero.

 

"-It's J'onn-!"

 

Two different voices cried out as her fireblast

struck.

 

"-He's invisible..." completed Beetle, far too

late, feeling his stomach sink.

 

"AARHHHH!" screamed the Martian Manhunter, his

voice drowning Despero's roar as flames covered his

now visible body, his flesh burning. His malleable

Martian tissue could adapt to most damage, but

burning was his greatest weakness.

 

"J'onn! NO!" cried Fire, in horror.

 

"PLAYING GAMES, MARTIAN?" asked Despero,

dismissing his own fire-induced pain, as he stood up

and grabbed his opponent by the neck.

 

"SHREWD. KEEPING YOUR PRESENCE SHIELDED FROM

MY SENSES. USELESS, HOWEVER."

 

Despero's third eye glowed and a savage blast

of energy struck the Martian hero point-blank. A

second blast followed immediately, making J'onn,

still in Despero's grasp, shake like a rag doll.

 

"J'onn, I'm sorry!" shouted Fire, stumbling

towards them, not knowing what else to do. Despero

turned to look at the still confused heroine and

casually released an energy burst that would have

killed her, had Beetle not tackled her an instant

before, throwing both to the ground. The blast's

shock wave caught them and sent them rolling among

the debris.

 

Despero chuckled evilly as he saw that the two

Leaguers were not moving. He turned his gaze again

to the Martian Manhunter.

 

"THIRD TIME IS THE CHARM, EARTHLINGS SAY."

 

Feeling himself drowning in an ocean of pain,

J'onn still looked up, wanting to look death eye to

eye, without fear. He saw Despero's eye glow anew,

preparing to unleash the final blast.

 

And then he was gone.

 

J'onn winced as his burned body hit the rough

waterproofed concrete surface. There had been the

sound of an impact, but then what? His ravaged senses

reached out to find out what had happened. And found

her.

 

She knelt over him, concern shining brightly

on her mind. Her hands felt cool against his charred skin.

 

"Merciful Hera," Wonder Woman said, aghast at

the Martian's condition. "J'onn, you need help. I must-"

 

>>Stop him,<< his mind said, burned lips now

useless for speech. >>You must stop him.<<

 

"But-" Diana began.

 

>>I can heal myself. But Despero must be stopped,

Princess. Please.<<

 

Blocks away, where Wonder Woman's kick had

thrown him, Despero roared his fury.

 

"Yes," Wonder Woman said laconically, standing up.


	9. The Fight's The Thing

"WOMAN!" Despero roared, his enormous crimson

body, trembling with rage. "HOW DARE YOU INTERFERE?"

 

"Please surrender," Princess Diana of the

Amazons said calmly, flying down to stand half a

block away from where Despero had crashed down.

"Nobody else needs to be hurt."

 

"RAAAHHHRGH!!" Despero roared as he charged at

her, his powerful legs propelling him forward with

an acceleration impossible to contemplate by any

human athlete.

 

With cold precision, Wonder Woman stepped

forward into Despero's rush, leading with her right

side, arms extending, one to grab Despero's right

arm, the other to hook around his massive torso,

while her hip struck his groin. With one single,

fluid motion, she twisted and spun, torqueing his

great mass fast around the fulcrum of her hip, to

slam him hard against the floor.

 

Buildings all around shook with the impact.

 

"Please surrender."

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"Kilowog sat on me, or what?" Blue Beetle

muttered, debris falling off him as he moved. He

looked down and saw Fire, face up beneath him.

 

"Oh, boy. Another one of those dreams..."

 

"Beetle! Do you copy?"

 

"Oh, crap..." Beetle said, remembering. "Buddy,

are you ok?"

 

"There's wreckage all over me," Booster's voice

reported through the comlink. "I can't blast a way

out. I'll be crushed if I turn off my force field.

Can anyone give me a hand?"

 

"Damn. Fire's out cold, and J'onn was hurt

pretty bad," Beetle said, groaning as he began to get

up. "We need paramedics here."

 

"Man, are you hurt?"

 

"Uh, not really. I fell over um, something

kinda soft and bouncy."

 

"And the big red creep?"

 

"Gone. Beats me why. Maybe needed to pee or

something. Hold on," Beetle said, limping towards

where J'onn J'onzz lay, fallen on his side over the

roofing slab. "J'onn, did you take out Big, Red and

Ugl-? Jesus H. Christ! J'onn, are you ok?" he added,

wincing at the state of his teammate. "Damn stupid

question. You sure as hell ain't ok. What can I do?"

 

>>I will be fine. I can heal myself. I just

need time. Help the others.<<

 

"You sure? You look like Oberon's last attempt

at meatloaf -HEY! You felt that?"

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"STAND STILL, DAMN IT!" Despero roared as he

jumped at Wonder Woman, his body a blur, his rage

further fueled by his frustration. How could such a

slip of a female dodge his wrath?

 

Wonder Woman ducked beneath his outstretched

arms, and grabbing his thick midsection in a close

embrace, she flowed with his momentum, arching back

and to a side at the waist. Redirecting Despero's

impetus, she threw herself backwards into bridge

position, slamming Despero face-first against the

ground behind her, in a move modern wrestlers may

have called a suplex.

 

Pushing off the ground powerfully with her

legs, she flipped backwards to land gracefully two

paces away from the dazed Despero. In one fluid

motion she freed from the clasp on her belt the

coiled length of her golden lasso, and sent it

through the air, to encircle the still dazed Despero.

 

"SURRENDER. NOW," Wonder Woman commanded, her

will flowing through the magical lariat. "You must

not hurt anyone else."

 

Despero's eyes clouded for an instant, and he

stumbled back in confusion. He shook his head and

raised his gaze, fire burning anew in them.

 

"NO!" he roared. "MY HATE MUST HAVE EXPRESSION!"

 

Wonder Woman's lips tightened. The lasso's

power of coercion was limited by the person's true

nature. If Despero harbored no regret or guilt, the

lasso was ineffective.

 

"DIEEEEEEARRHHHHHH!"

 

Despero lunged, and Wonder Woman stepped

forward. Ducking slightly to a side, she struck out

with the heel of her hand against his chin, using

the opposing force vectors to maximize the power

of her strike. The blow shattered Despero's jaw

and threw his whole torso backwards, while his feet

flew up, all forward momentum neutralized in the

brutal collision and resulting torque, sending the

monster crashing to the floor.

 

"So be it," she said.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"Booster?" Beetle whispered, adjusting the

magnification of his goggles, to better watch the

actions of the Amazon Princess from his

position on the slab's edge.

 

"Yeah?"

 

"Remind me that from now on, I'm to always

express myself with only the outmost respect

regarding Princess Diana."

 

 

**************************************

 

 

Despero's curses were now unintelligible grunts.

Glowering in fury, he swung powerfully, attempting to

land an Earth-shattering punch on the agile Amazon.

 

Wonder Woman ducked, sidestepping beneath

Despero's swing, and her booted right shin rushed up

in a blur to strike at his midsection. As he doubled

over, she grabbed his outstretched arm, and her foot

stomped sideways with crisp precision onto the side

of his right knee.

 

With a grunt of pain, Despero fell to his knees,

and Wonder Woman immediately spun, her left knee

making powerful contact against the back of his head.

 

Despero flopped down face-first, unmoving.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"HOLY SHIT! THAT'S GOTTA HURT!"

 

"Uh, Beetle..."

 

"Damn, I thought Black Canary had good moves,

but that was something else! That girl oughta be

in movies!"

 

"Beetle, I think I'm kinda going to suffocate

here. Just thought you may want to know."

 

"Isn't the kinetic threshold of your force

field set to let air in?"

 

"Yeah, but the wreckage around me seems too

tightly packed to let much through. Look, man, I

don't wanna rush you or anything, but could you

please FUCKING HELP ME?"

 

"Jeez, don't get your panties in a bunch,

I'm going..."

 

 

**************************************

 

 

She had struck Despero hard enough to cripple

many of the strongest paranormals she knew of, but

Wonder Woman was still not taking any chances, and

she approached the fallen creature warily. Such

drastic techniques and power level were not to be

used lightly since it was difficult to fight at such

levels without deathly results. But Despero's

strength and the brutality of his rampage had forced

her to rise the intensity of her actions. It was

still more consideration than what Despero had

shown J'onn. Yet she felt no satisfaction at being

made to use such violence.

 

Taking the golden lasso in hand, Wonder Woman

pressed one knee and shin against Despero's wide,

overmuscled back, and prepared to bind him with the

unbreakable lariat.

 

>>BEWARE! HE IS FAKING!<< J'onn's telepathic

voice rang in her mind.

 

With a roar, Despero suddenly spun, reaching

for the Amazon. But instead of attempting to flee,

Wonder Woman leaned forward, blocking the hugely

muscled forearm, while delivering a palm-heel strike

to his face, squashing the disproportionate small

nose instantly, making dark blood flood out. Turning

to a side, she leaned back, pulling on his huge arm,

while throwing her legs on and around him, straddling

his armpit as she shifted into an arm-bar hold.

Leveraging with her powerful legs against his torso,

and using her own hip as fulcrum point, she pulled

the arm to an angle, and with a grunt of effort, she

pressed into the dislocation until the joint gave

with a loud snap.

 

Despero's surprised howl of pain was cut short

as Wonder Woman's foot rose and the heel came down

fast and hard against his face, stunning him.

 

Relinquishing the injured arm, Wonder Woman

moved over him, straddling his midsection in mount

position, about to deliver a straight knuckle-punch

to his face.

 

A burst of energy was released from Despero's

third eye, and Wonder Woman was thrown off, sent

backwards to fall a dozen paces away.

 

Despero stood up slowly, nursing his damaged

arm, a growl barely held in check at the back of his

throat. The Amazon's golden lasso was still tied

around one of his wrists, its length falling to his

 

Wonder Woman rolled over her back to her feet,

cursing her own foolishness. Losing the lasso was a

serious mistake. Even if Despero could not be

coerced, the unbreakable lariat should have been

able to bind him, and she should have sought to do

just that, not engage him in further combat. Yet she

had been angry at what the creature had done to

J'onn, and she had let that anger cloud her purity

of purpose.

 

Despero's third eye glowed balefully as he

stared with furious disbelief at the delicate-looking

female who had managed to harm him. His rage was now

tempered by wariness. Such power in a mere woman was

not what he had expected.

 

"YOU ARE MORE THAN JUST COMELY FLESH, IT SEEMS,

WOMAN," Despero said. "YOU MAY HAVE DESERVED CLOSER

ATTENTION."

 

Wonder Woman frowned. She had felt his jaw

shatter under her strike. He should have been unable

to speak.

 

"BUT YOUR EFFORTS ARE FUTILE. YOU WILL FALL

BEFORE MY FURY. THIS WHOLE PLANET WILL," his voice

boomed ominously. "AND I WILL BROOK NO MORE DELAYS."

 

The Amazon saw the telltale energy glow of

the third eye surge, and knowing that there would be

no time to duck, she lifted her arms, the speed of

Hermes at her command, crossing them in guard before

her, using her bracelets as focal point for

concentrating on her gifts of resilience and strength.

 

"DIE."

 

 

**************************************

 

 

J'onn J'onzz felt the blast in his mind as a

jumble of sensory input. A numbing flash of light,

a deafening roar, and a sudden wash of pain.

 

>>Diana! Are you-?<<

 

*I'll live,* he sensed her mind articulate,

and he felt a cool flood of relief run through him.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

Wincing, Wonder Woman rose to her feet.

 

Despero's blast had struck her with a power

she had rarely experienced. She had set her feet

solidly on the ground, consciously bracing against

Gaea, the power of the Earth beneath. She should

have withstood anything. Yet she had been thrown off

her feet, to land half a block away. The metal of

her bracelets still glowed red-hot, and her whole

body seemed to smoke. Most of her costume had been

instantly incinerated.

 

She could not let him blast her again.

 

"YOU ARE INDEED A TASTY MORSEL, FEMALE," said

Despero, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the

Amazon's mostly exposed figure. The remaining scraps

of cloth and armor plate barely covered her full

curves. "PERHAPS I SHOULD SPARE YOU FOR LATER."

 

Wonder Woman sighed. She had heard that line

before, again and again. Was such single-minded

lack of originality an universal male trait?

 

"You should spare everyone the pain, Despero.

Including yourself. Give up now."

 

"GIVE UP? YOU ARE TRULY AMUSING!" Despero

answered. "I SHALL ENJOY BREAKING YOU AS MY SLAVE!"

 

Wonder Woman took to the air a fraction of

a second before his blast struck.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"What? Where...?" Fire mumbled.

 

"You left out 'why'. Careful!" Beetle gasped,

as he struggled with Fire's weight. She was slung

over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. "Don't

move!"

 

"My God... J'onn? Is J'onn...?"

 

"Rather well-done, I'd say," Beetle replied,

trying to balance her shifting weight. "He'll

consider investing heavily in sunblock next time,

I suppose, but he'll live. Don't move, dammit!"

 

"What happened? Why are you-?"

 

"Haven't you always wanted to be in my arms?"

 

"What?"

 

"Believe me, this really isn't my idea of

picking up chicks. Climbing down that service ladder

was no picnic. You're way heavier than what you look."

 

"What?"

 

"Booster's trapped. I need you to incinerate

some stuff off him. Feel up to walking? I think my

back's about to give out."

 

"I'll try... God, I feel like crap... I-"

Fire groaned, as she began to slide off Beetle's

back. Suddenly, she felt her stomach lurch and

demand better lodgings. "I- UURP!"

 

"OH, CRAP! NO!"

 

"Uh... Sorry..." Fire said weakly, after the

nausea had passed.

 

"Damn it! You know how hard it is to get the

smell off this spandex stuff?"


	10. We Will, We Will Rock You

Gritting her teeth, as she focused on her power

of endurance, Wonder Woman crashed into the tenth

story of an evacuated building, steel and concrete

giving in like paper before the impact.

 

After frantic aerial maneuvering to dodge

Despero's eyeblasts, he had finally struck her in

mid-air just as she had attempted to dive head-on

towards him again. She could not attempt that again.

While her Amazon combat skills allowed her to match

his physical strength, he had clear advantage in a

long-range match. She had to get back into close

 

Shrugging off the debris, Wonder Woman reached

down to thrust slender fingers into the slab beneath

her, reaching the iron rods inside. With a single

pull, she tore off a massive chunk of the reinforced

concrete mass, and with effortless accuracy, she

threw it at Despero with the speed of a rocket.

 

Despero's eye glowed, and the improvised

projectile shattered into dust and a myriad

scattered fragments.

 

Despero looked up, again seeking the Amazon,

and was suddenly jerked back and up.

 

Wonder Woman rose fast into the air, holding

Despero in a rear choke, her arms wrapped tightly

around the thick neck, one forearm at his trachea,

another pressing the skull forward, while her long

legs cinched around his torso. She had used the

instant of distraction to reach his back, behind his

blasting range. In mid-air, with no true outside

leverage, his enormous strength was neutralized, and

her tightening grip depended only on internal leverage.

 

Despero began to struggle wildly, his arms

flailing, trying in vain to reach her, his own

massive frame working against him. His curses came

as jumbled gasps.

 

The arm she had injured instants before now

seemed unharmed, Wonder Woman noticed, frowning.

She also could recover from most physical damage, but

not at such a rate. Was any attack on him ultimately

pointless, then?

 

Without warning a sudden shock hit her senses,

a merciless pressure that seemed about to make her

head explode. She clenched her teeth, and endured,

while every fabric of her being begged for oblivion.

 

>>Resist, Diana,<< J'onn's voice said inside

her mind. >>I'll help shield you.<<

 

*Just what is this creature's power?* she

thought, as the attack relented, and Despero's

struggles again become only physical. *How can I

stop him?*

 

>>I fear we never understood the true extent

of Despero's power,<< J'onn mindspoke. >>He seems

capable of mentally manipulating both matter and

energy. His very body may be just a manifestation

of this.<<

 

*Can you attack his mind while I restrain him?*

 

>>I tried to before. He brushed my attack aside

and tore through my shields with ease. He violated my

memories, Diana. Ravaged my very sense of self. I

could never break through such power...<<

 

*Then I must find a way!* she thought, already

feeling her arms beginning to ache with the tension.

The rear choke should had rendered Despero unconscious

by now, but perhaps he did not even need to truly

breathe. She had been forced to escalate her level of

power and the brutality of her attacks in the face

of his might, yet it seemed that Despero could

withstand anything she could do. Any effort to

restrain or relocate him may only delay the ultimate

 

Wonder Woman breathed deeply. She knew that if

she applied enough strength in her current position,

she could dislocate the neck vertebrae, but she was

loath to kill. It was almost as much a failure as an

actual defeat. Yet could she risk the death of untold

innocents by further prolonging such a confrontation?

Despite her reluctance, she seemed to have little choice.

 

A sudden pain hit her leg, and Wonder Woman

cried out in surprise. Despero had grabbed one of

the heroine's legs wrapped around his chest and had

squeezed the ankle with his inhuman strength. She

clenched her eyes shut, focusing on her resilience,

trying to shut off the pain, even as she tightened

her hold even more.

 

Suddenly, the ground rushed at them, and in

the blink of an eye, they struck it with the sound

of an artillery shell, breaking through meters of

pavement and rock to reach a subway station below,

an empty subway car folding like cloth beneath them.

Despero had disrupted her concentration enough to

overcome her flight power.

 

With a mirthless laugh, Despero grabbed the

stunned Amazon's long black hair and threw her like

a toy to the station's floor.

 

The Amazon breathed deeply, stumbling to her

knees, feeling her ankle protest at the attempt to

rise. Despero, whose superior powers of recovery gave

him the advantage, now stood before her, his eyes

narrowing as he stared at her.

 

"YOU KNEEL BEFORE YOUR MASTER, WOMAN, AS YOU

SHOULD. I LIKE THAT," he said, his eyes glowing now

with a different kind of hunger.

 

Wonder Woman looked up and for an instant,

her eyes widened. Had THAT been there before? she

wondered in an instant of digression. She found it

hard to believe she had failed to notice such an

outstanding feature.

 

"YOU MAY STILL BE OF SOME USE," he said,

reaching for her.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

J'onn's mind registered similar surprise,

seeing Despero through his mindlink with Diana.

 

*She is affecting him, too,* he realized.

*Enough to manifest it physically.*

 

 

**************************************

 

 

As Despero reached for her, Wonder Woman seized

his thick wrists, and threw herself back to the floor,

extending her legs to plant her feet on his hips.

Pulling him in with her arms while pushing with her

legs, she rolled backwards and threw him over and

behind, to smash against the station's wall.

 

She stood up, and smiled. In her right hand

she again held her golden lasso, the other end of

which was still tied to Despero's wrist.

 

Grabbing the lasso tightly with both hands, the

heroine pulled and twisted, and Despero was swung in

a tight arch to hit the station's farthest wall with

a loud crash. Spinning powerfully, she flung him at

the opposite wall immediately. Focusing on strength,

speed, and the grounding needed, and ignoring the

groaning of her muscles at the effort of channeling the

necessary power, Wonder Woman repeated the action again

and again, throwing Despero from wall to wall, harder

and faster each time, his body becoming a blur, as the

whole station shuddered with the powerful impacts.

 

A wino who had been dozing in a nearby corner

and was overlooked in the evacuation efforts, woke

up with justifiable shock. Swearing to give up booze

for real this time, he ran away with speed that would

have made an Olympic coach proud.

 

Just when the whole place seemed about to cave

in, Wonder Woman finally willed the lasso to contract,

and with a brisk tug she pulled Despero's battered

form towards her.

 

The enormous creature seemed unconscious, his

face and body bruised and bloodied. Yet Wonder Woman

could not afford to feel relief. Feeling her back

muscles cramping with fatigue, she wrapped the golden

lasso around the creature's torso and arms, and turned

him facedown, moving to bind hands and feet together.

 

The ground below them exploded as Despero

released a fearsome energy blast, a reverse shower

of concrete and soil throwing Wonder Woman off her

feet, unbalanced by the unexpected indirect attack.

 

Despero struggled to his feet, seething with

fury as he strained against the slender length of

golden rope binding him. The damage Wonder Woman had

inflicted on him was vanishing already, yet he was

unable to free himself from the apparently ridiculous

obstacle. His shoulder and arm muscles grew even

larger, the enormous bulging masses crackling with

energy, but still the unbreakable golden lasso held.

 

He looked at where the stunned heroine lay,

face up on the ground. She should die in horrible

pain for her affront, he knew, yet his eyes drank

with relish the sight of her shapely female flesh,

Her costume had been charred into almost nothingness

by his blasts, yet the exposed skin on her lush

body remained smooth and unblemished but for minor

fading bruises.

 

"IT IS TIME YOU BEGAN SERVING THIS WORLD'S NEW

MASTER," he sneered, looming arrogantly over the

Amazon, his powerful legs straddling her fallen body.

 

As Despero stepped over her, Wonder Woman slid

forward, her left hand reaching for the creature's

right foot set by her side, while her legs rose to

wrap themselves from behind around his thick thigh,

her booted feet locking above his groin. Trapping his

foot tightly in her armpit, she clasped her hands on

it, and forced her legs down with all her power,

bringing Despero back and down to the ground before

her. Adjusting her position, she locked her hands

and arms, and leaning back, broke his ankle like a twig.

 

Despero roared in pain, and she coiled back

her right foot and stomped it forward into the

sizable target at his groin with furious power.

Despero's eyes bulged and his mouth became a small

circular opening, as the pain rendered him voiceless.

 

Jumping to her feet instantly, Wonder Woman

twisted her body and Despero's trapped leg with it,

dislocating the knee joint with a wet-sounding snap.

Despero's torso rose as he screamed, to be sent back

down immediately by a side kick to his face. With a

grunt, the heroine brought her knee down onto the

lower portion of his exposed rib-cage, feeling the

diamond-hard bones give in to the impact. Sliding to

straddle Despero, she grabbed the golden lasso still

binding the monster's arms and wrapped it around his

shoulders and neck, leaning forward in mount position,

using one forearm to force Despero's face to a side,

deflecting his blasting range. Breathing deeply, she

began to deliver a staccato of straight punches with

her free hand, dark blood splattering on her with each

 

"YAAAARGHHHHHH!" Despero screamed, as his will

sent the two of them flying up, to smash against the

station's ceiling, the surprised heroine taking the

brunt of the impact, before falling back to the

station's floor.

 

Wonder Woman felt darkness threaten to shroud

her mind, but she fought it, using her pain as focus

to remain conscious, cursing her overconfidence. She

had again underestimated his enormous power. Her body

ached in agony and her head seemed about to explode,

but she was still holding onto the lasso, refusing to

let go, as they both rolled on the debris-covered

floor, joined by the golden length of metallic rope.

 

*That is it,* she realized, as she gritted her

teeth in determination, fighting to keep the

struggling brute under control.

 

*J'ONN!* she cried out in her mind. *The lasso!

It is the way in!*

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"This is the place. I think. Booster, there's

a mountain of rubble here. Just where the hell are you?"

 

"Down here!"

 

"Oh. Great help."

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"GIVE UP!" Wonder Woman commanded, focusing

her will through the lasso binding Despero, joining

them in its mystic bond.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

J'onn winced as he trembled with the effort,

brushing aside the pain of his healing injuries, his

mind reaching through his mindlink with Diana into

the strange pathway the magical lasso provided.

 

>>GIVE UP!<< he echoed, hammering at the fiery

wall of Despero's mind.

 

Suddenly, they were in.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

There was nothing but anger and hate. The

monomaniacal fire of obsession had grown and grown

until it had consumed anything else there may have

ever been. Conscious thought remained only as a

tool for the expression of his hate, for the

articulation of his anger.

 

The respective consciousness of Martian and

Amazon, tenuously linked, were but inconsequential

specks lost in a vast ocean of madness. They could

only stare in horror at the intensity of the

all-present loathing, aghast at the burning flashes

of bitter recollection. The memories that colored

the surface of his madness were only fuel for

Despero's fury, focal points for his hate.

 

They sensed, as if they had lived it, the

dread and hate projected from the hearts of people

facing the birth of a grotesque mutant. They felt

the dark shadow of death claim the parents, victims

of fear and intolerance. and the sudden awakening

of the fearsome power echoing such murderous resolve.

They saw a planet devastated, a race slaughtered,

revenge and hate becoming, more than a way of life,

life itself.

 

*He was just a child...* J'onn felt Diana

mutter to herself, her pain almost tangible through

the shared mindlink.

 

They saw his power grow, his lust for death

and conquest growing in hand, to be stopped only

when facing the Justice League. They felt the

shock of discorporation, and the spiraling madness

of sensory deprivation annihilating everything but

the central core of hate and hunger for the

retribution he felt they owed him. That all life

owed him.

 

Despero had become his hate, and his hate was

all there was of him.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"Bea, it's not enough! You are just slagging

the rubble," Beetle shouted. "You need to vaporize

the whole thing!"

 

"I'm doing the best I can!" Fire replied.

"This isn't easy!"

 

 

**************************************

 

 

It was useless.

 

J'onn's mind surfed the waves of Despero's fury,

anchored by the firmness of Diana's concern, as he

desperately sought a handhold. Anything he could work

with. But even deep inside Despero's defenses, there

was nothing he could do. The creature's savage anger,

his lust for retribution was too boundless, too

intense, yet too basic and featureless to grasp. It

was like trying to catch water with a sieve.

 

*I can't...*

 

 

**************************************

 

 

*NO!* Wonder Woman thought at J'onn, while she

and Despero rolled on the floor, her tired muscles

straining to hold down the struggling brute, as he

roared his anger at the presence that had infiltrated

his mind. Her eyes were closed, her consciousness

focused elsewhere, but her training allowed her to

keep up with the monster's struggles, her body aware

of every shift of his musculature through the close

contact of their tangled bodies.

 

*There must be a way!*

 

 

**************************************

 

 

J'onn felt like drowning in the immense depth

of Despero's obsession, his senses recoiling at the

conflagration of burning hate. Even Diana's hope

seemed feeble in the face of such negative emotion.

 

Yet, when just about to give up, to ironically

give in to despair, he found something. There was a

shifting discontinuity in the emotional landscape of

Despero's madness. From his lust for violence and

death a different emotion manifested erratically, a

desire not for blood and destruction. If he could

isolate and magnify it, it could be his handle.

 

J'onn was shocked as he suddenly understood its

 

 

**************************************

 

 

Wonder Woman understood, too, as she caught

J'onn's realization through the mindlink. It was

hardly surprising, having seen the physical evidence

already. For an instant she wondered if J'onn was

right and such things were indeed a passive

manifestation of her powers. Surely males could not

always be so single minded as that. But she

immediately dispelled such digressions.

 

*Could you act on Despero's mind through

this... weakness?* she asked.

 

>>Perhaps, if his hate were to give way to it

in greater measure, but how...?<<

 

Wasting no time, the Amazon Princess grabbed

Despero's head in both hands and put her mouth to his.


	11. Life Is But A (Wet) Dream

"I'M TRYING, DAMN IT!"

 

"Not hard enough!" Beetle replied, feeling his

desperation grow by the second. Fire's power did not

seem up to the task, no reinforcements had arrived,

and Guy was still not answering the comlink calls.

Things were not looking good. "Unless you can burn it

all off fast, he'll run out of air or be cooked alive

by the heat you're producing!"

 

"Uh, I'm kinda listening here, remember?"

Booster piped in through the comlink.

 

"Booster! Set your force field to maximum!"

Beetle advised. "We don't need another stir-fried

Leaguer added to Fire's tally."

 

"That's not fair, you idiot!" Fire spat. "How

could I know it was J'onn? He was invisible, carajo!"

 

"Well, Booster's down there, and you know it.

So do something about it!"

 

"Don't scream at me!"

 

"I didn't carry your fat ass all the way down

here for you to wimp out on Booster, damn it!

 

"FAT ASS?" Fire yelled, her flames flaring

dramatically, the wave of expanding hot air throwing

Beetle off his feet.

 

Beetle's eyebrows rose beneath his mask.

 

"Hey! Nice going, Fake Tits!"

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

J'onn tried to sit up in surprise, making pain

flare all over his entire nervous system. Yet it was

as nothing compared to the intense shock filling his

mind.

 

>>Diana! Why?<< he projected, in a flurry of

jumbled non-verbal expressions of disbelief.

 

*We must overcome his hate,* her mind answered

him laconically. *We must each do whatever we can.*

 

J'onn could sense it all through the shared

link. He could feel her soft lips caressing Despero's

mouth, open in equally stunned amazement. He could

feel the fullness her breasts pressing against the

hard pectoral muscles. Her legs straddled him tightly,

and the skin of her thighs was soft and smooth despite

the dirt and grime. The rudimentary semblance of self

that remained of Despero's consciousness was unsure of

how to react to the Amazon's initiative, yet the

instinctive part of his nature had no such confusion,

and J'onn could feel his desire grow, fighting against

the flood of hate.

 

It was working, but not well enough.

 

Despero desired her, but not like this, J'onn

saw. He had to be the conqueror. Had to force his will

on her, to assert his superiority, to manifest his

disdain and hate. His blind conviction fought against

his physical reaction. J'onn felt Despero struggle anew

against the golden lasso, even as Diana's kiss took on

a peculiar mixture of tenderness and urgency.

 

J'onn knew that more would be needed, seeing

how Despero's stubborn obsession fought against the

growing bonfire of lust her actions fanned. But he

was still not ready for what happened.

 

>>DIANA! BY THE TWIN MOONS! YOU CAN'T!<<

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

She had not thought at first that it would need

to go so far, but she knew she could not retreat.

Amazons did not give up once committed.

 

She gasped. He was much, much bigger than what

she had first thought.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"SHUT UP! I'M DOING IT, OK?"

 

"-and why Fire? Was Cellulite Lass already taken?"

 

"CUT IT OUT! I'M DOING IT ALREADY!" Fire yelled

while her flames flared white-hot, consuming everything

in their path.

 

"What? Melting your implants? I'd sue that

surgeon. My fat uncle's tits look nicer."

 

"SHUT UP!"

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

The second wino rubbed his eyes with a dirty

mitten, but they were still there. He leaned forward

squinting, trying to make out the scene better.

 

He had at first been angered at whoever was

making such a loud mess. But now he knew that it was

just a dream. Or perhaps he was seeing things again.

They all said he had to get off the juice, but he

sure as hell never saw stuff like that while sober.

And ugly as the thing below was, the chick was really

hot. So what did they know?

 

 

**************************************

 

 

He groaned. He had never imagined it could be

like that.

 

The pleasure was becoming painful in its

intensity. A single point of infinite yet exquisite

agony that made him tremble, yearning for release. Yet

it still rose even higher, and higher, overwhelming

his senses in a vortex of unimaginable sensation.

 

He felt his whole being pooling at the burning

point of their union, and felt as if suffocating,

desperate for air that somehow refused to fill his

lungs, drowning in his need.

 

He roared, desperate for culmination.

 

And suddenly, his whole universe contracted

into a single instant of exquisite delight.

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

...Suddenly, his whole universe contracted

into a single instant of exquisite delight.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

...His whole universe contracted into a single

instant of exquisite delight.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

...A single instant of exquisite delight.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

...Exquisite delight.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

"You did it! FLABBY ASS, YOU DID IT!"

 

"Yeah, I did it," gasped the exhausted heroine,

crumbling to her knees, and then falling with little

ceremony on her back. "Now cut that out, will you?"

 

"Booster? Buddy, are you ok?" Beetle said,

coughing as he tried to wave the dense smoke away.

Even through the thick soles of his boots he felt

the heat remaining in the thick layer of ashes.

 

"For any concerned, I'm almost dead," Fire

muttered. "But don't bother to thank me."

 

"Booster! Wake up! Fire did it!" Beetle yelled,

his fists striking at apparent nothingness. "DAMN IT!

TURN THE FORCE FIELD OFF, YOU IDIOT! YOU'RE SAVED!"

 

"What?" Fire asked, trying to lift her head and

failing.

 

"He's out of it! SHIT! He can still suffocate

in there!"

 

 

**************************************

 

 

Wonder Woman rose to her feet, breathing out

slowly, her cramped muscles complaining. The mindlink

was gone, and only the echoes of Despero's final

mind state remained.

 

It had been interesting, she thought, brushing

aside sweaty locks of her disheveled hair. She idly

wondered if that was exactly what all males felt at

such moments.

 

Before her, floating eerily above the ground

where her golden lasso lay empty, was a small red

figure, surrounded by a faint energy aura. It was a

shrunken, contorted humanoid parody, barely inches

tall, the grotesque fetus-like body even smaller than

the disproportionate head, which resembled a tomato

in size and color.

 

It was hard to believe that such a fragile

misshapen thing floating placidly in mid-air had

been the enormously powerful creature she had just

faced.

 

She had been quite surprised as his massive

body had shriveled up suddenly. Too suddenly.

 

Men usually shrank after sex, Diana thought

with an inner smile. But this was ridiculous.

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"Diana, you did not have to perform such a

sacrifice," J'onn said uneasily, as she lifted him

in her arms.

 

"Lives were at stake. It worked," she shrugged.

"Did you destroy his mind? Is he-?"

 

"No. Even, uh, distracted, he was too powerful.

He would have resisted any attempt to shut him down.

Rejected any implanted command or constrain. But I

could use what he had already accepted."

 

Diana raised an eyebrow, inquiringly.

 

"I shaped a mindconstruct to contain him, from

his own thoughts and sensations, creating a loop in

his memory. He is trapped in his own mind, reliving

again and again the same single instant. One he will

not reject or deny."

 

"I see," Diana said, understanding.

 

"When his mind closed in itself, his body

instantly atrophied into its present state."

 

"I did notice that."

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"WAKE UP! FUCK! WAKE UP OR I'll KICK YOUR ASS!"

Beetle screamed, hammering at the invisible barrier.

Inside the force field, Booster was not moving, and

his labored breathing was turning into short gasps.

 

"Beetle, you can't-" Fire began.

 

"DON'T DO THIS TO ME!"

 

>>Allow me.<<

 

Booster's wrist control clicked and the force

field disappeared.

 

Beetle lunged forward and shook Booster wildly,

while Wonder Woman touched ground a few paces away,

the Martian Manhunter held in her arms. Seeing little

result, Beetle knelt down and began to give Booster

mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

 

"He is fine now, Beetle," J'onn said, scanning

Booster, and giving his mind a small nudge towards

consciousness. "Good work."

 

"Aw, you two look so sweet together," Fire said

with a smile. "Don't stop."

 

"WHAT?" Beetle asked, lifting his head.

 

"Uh-What?" Booster coughed. "Damn, what the

hell died in my mouth?"

 

"We've always said that you two are such a

cute couple," Fire continued, her smile threatening

to outgrow her face.

 

"Don't joke like that!"

 

"You even complete each other's sentences all

the time."

 

"Oh, shit, you did it! I thought I was a goner,

thanks, man!" Booster said, raising to embrace Beetle.

"I knew I could count on-"

 

"Careful there!" Beetle said, getting up. "And

just what did you mean by that EVERYONE thing a while ago?"

 

"Uh?"

 

"Booster," J'onn said. "As soon as you feel

better, you should enclose Despero's remains in a

force field for safe transfer to the Embassy."

 

"Aye, aye, Sir."

 

"You beat Despero?" Fire asked Wonder Woman,

eyes wide open in grudging admiration.

 

"I just kept him occupied," Wonder Woman replied.

"J'onn found the way to defeat him."

 

"Really? But wasn't he invulnerable to your

telepathy?" Fire asked, puzzled.

 

"Oh," J'onn began, looking uneasily at Wonder

Woman, as he tried to stand on his own. "It was, ah,

a special mental power we Martians have."

 

"J'onn?" Wonder Woman began. "You don't need to-"

 

>>Please allow me,<< J'onn replied for her mind

only. >>We must all do our part.<<

 

"It could be used only once in a lifetime,

actually," he continued. "Despero is no longer a

threat, that is all that matters."

 

Fire frowned, but there were more urgent

things to consider. "We must search for Scott, he

may be still be alive. And where did you take Tora,

Booster?"

 

"I took her to a paramedic station some blocks

that way, I'll go check on her."

 

"What did you mean by EVERYONE?" Beetle insisted.

 

"Oh, grow up."

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"Rest now, J'onn," Diana said as he carefully

lowered the Martian onto the waiting stretcher.

"I must help with the clean-up work."

 

>>It may be wise to retrieve some replacement

clothing first, Diana.<<

 

Diana smiled. Aside from boots, belt and

bracelets, very little remained of her clothing,

and she knew by experience that nudity often

distressed the people around her. "You are doing

something about it."

 

"A minor telepathic suggestion not to take

notice, yes. There are cultural considerations to

be taken, for courtesy's sake."

 

A few paces away, Blue Beetle turned, for the

twelfth time in a row, to look with a puzzled frown

at Amazon and Martian. There was something strange

that he couldn't quite put his finger on, but he

could swear that he was somehow missing something.

He scratched his head and shrugged. Surely it was

nothing important.

 

"Thank you, J'onn. Again," Diana said warmly,

leaning down to kiss the Martian softly on the cheek.

"But we really must stop meeting this way," she

added with a dazzling smile before turning around and

taking to the air.

 

"Why J'onn, you are turning a deeper shade of

green," Beetle said, grinning widely.

 

 

**************************************

 

 

Scott Free sighed. He had been giving autographs

for over an hour. Did everyone in Vega really need to

get an holo taken with Mister Miracle?

 

"How did you do it? Not even a Durlan could

have gotten out of the last trap!" a gushing teenage

Gordanian asked, his oversized reptilian belly

stretching the fabric of a food-stained Mister Miracle

Tour official t-shirt.

 

"Trade secrets," Scott Free answered in fluent

Standard Vegan, smiling. "But all traps can be escaped.

If you really want to be free, you can never be held

prisoner. Not by cages, or chains, or fears. There is

always a way out. You just need to find..."

 

"Let me record your odor, please," a small

grayish thing begged.

 

"Who does your nose hair?"

 

"You live on Earth, right? Are you dating

Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran?"

 

"Were you really the first person to escape

from Granny Goddess's Orphanage?"

 

Normally Scott always felt irritated by the

whole Escape From Apokolips propaganda angle that

Khan had used, but now he was no longer listening.

Lost in thought for an instant, he suddenly smiled.

 

"Find the right tools," he mused.

 

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

Guy Gardner sat up, shaking his head. He had

to be alive. Otherwise his head would not be hurting

so much. He wrinkled his nose, and wondered whose

bright idea had been to drop him into a dumpster.

 

"Goddamn. Did I miss anything?"


	12. Epilogues

EPILOGUE ONE: ESO LE PASA AL QUE LLEVA AMIGO A SU CASA

 

 

 

"We had a mayor level threat here! We have a

Leaguer missing and presumed dead! A dozen civilian

casualties and millions of dollars in damage! We

needed fucking reinforcements! And you all were out

looking for a cat?" Oberon asked, shaking his head

in disbelief. Surely not even the League could be so

screwed up.

 

"It had been kidnapped," Captain Atom, leader

of the League's European branch explained, his face

filling the video screen of the monitor room. "Power

Girl was very worried, and you know how she gets

when she's worried..."

 

"Oberon! There you are," Blue Beetle said,

walking into the monitor room, a small cloth bag in

hand. "You have to see this."

 

"Look, I know you had to get me worked up

enough and all," Fire asked, walking in after

Beetle. "But do you really think that my butt's

too big?"

 

"We'll continue this later, Captain," Oberon

said, cutting the link. He felt tired, and very,

very old. "A fucking cat..." he whispered.

 

"I supervised as Guy went through the wreck

with his ring, looking for something," Beetle said,

sitting next to Oberon. "And found nothing. There

was nothing organic in there."

 

"What does that mean?" Oberon said, frowning.

Was there a point in getting their hopes up?

 

"Whoever or whatever was in the jet, it

wasn't Scott."

 

"What?" Fire asked, startled. "Who was it then?"

 

"You tell me," Beetle said, opening the bag

and placing its content in the console before them.

 

Oberon's eyes bulged and Fire's caramel

complexion paled to almost resemble Ice's.

 

"I doubt this belonged to Scott," Beetle said

smugly.

 

"Is it-?"

 

"Fake? Yep. Artificial. Very lifelike, though."

 

"Oh, my God-!" Fire began.

 

"I'm not up to date in ahem, the field of penile

substitutes-"

 

"-I fucked a robot?"

 

"-but this doesn't look like Earth tech to me."

 

"I fucked an ALIEN robot?"

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

In a small cabin deep in the least fashionable

areas of the Conglomerate's huge space-faring complex,

things began to get weird.

 

Space itself suddenly shifted, folded and was

reshaped into cylindrical shape, as a tubular

discontinuity grew from the fabric of the space-time

continuum, and a booming noise rose, filling the small

enclosed space. While the ethereal tube was apparently

contained inside the cabin's minimal dimensions, the

perspective inside its core seemed to stretch for

infinity and a foot.

 

From this immeasurable depth something came, to

settle in the cabin's center.

 

For the unenlightened witness the arrival may

have seemed a thin human dressed in blue tights and

sitting nonchalantly on an oversized metal armchair.

Those few with an understanding of the higher levels

of reality in the cosmos, may have recognized the

cold visage of Metron, master of all sciences and

most inscrutable of the powerful race known as the

New Gods of New Genesis, he who roams the depths of

reality in his Mobius Chair, unraveling the very

secrets of existence.

 

"Yo, Metron, how's it hanging?" Mister Miracle

asked with a smile.

 

Metron blinked. Once.

 

"Scott Free, even Highfather's son should not

summon one such as Metron for trivialities," he said

coldly in the speech of New Genesis, ignoring Mister

Miracle's use of Earth's English. "Particularly when

slumming amongst these pathetic mortal creatures. Do

you have a suitably worthy cause to interrupt my

meditations?"

 

"Rank doth hath its privileges, eh?" Mister

Miracle asked, smiling. Much as Metron boasted of

being bound to no authority, morality or mundanity,

his many experiments were rather on the expensive

side, and like brains everywhere, the guy with the

purse, Scott's father, had him by the metaphorical

short hairs.

 

"It does not involve the same childishness as

last time, I expect. Batting averages and such?"

 

"Nope. I think I have something that you may

find challenging."

 

"Challenging?" Metron asked disdainfully, but

curiosity was peeking from beneath the deep layers

of ennui, and even those sectors of his mind usually

listing prime numbers indefinitely were now taking

notice. "How could you fathom what Metron would find

challenging?"

 

"Just thought you'd want to take a crack at

this," Scott said, handing Metron the massive

printout of his Conglomerate contract. "Psion law."

 

"Oh, well," Metron said, his skin creaking as

he raised a long-unused eyebrow. "There's nothing

good on cable tonight anyway."

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"YEAH! He's alive! Scott's alive!" Oberon

cheered, jumping off his chair to first hug Fire and

then kiss Beetle. He may have gotten the order wrong,

but he was still too happy to care. "Where can Scott

be, then?"

 

"I think Manga Khan may be again involved.

Kilowog said this looks like Conglomerate tech."

 

"He said anything else?"

 

"That it was ridiculous to make this at such a

small scale," Beetle said with a smile, taking the

thing in hand with some reluctance, before standing

up. "We'll keep you up on it."

 

"A robot," Fire muttered while Beetle left, as

she ran her hands through her hair, slumped in her

chair. She had, as a teenager, done things during

carnavales in Rio which she didn't even want to

remember, but still this was an all-new low for her.

"My God... I'm such a slut."

 

"Ah, com'on, Bea," Oberon started. "Don't blow

it out of proportion."

 

"For God's sake, I blew it! Literally! I had

sex with a damned alien machine! Shit! I fucked a

THING! How can anyone respect me after that?"

 

Oberon breathed deeply and stepped forward to

look at Fire eye to eye.

 

"Beatriz, any man who wouldn't respect a

woman like you must be a certified idiot."

 

"Really?" she asked, her eyes lighting up.

 

"And your butt's not too big, for sure."

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"So what did you mean by 'everyone'?" Beetle

asked for the umpteenth time.

 

Booster sighed. "Man, you are my friend, and

I love you..."

 

"Oh, shit."

 

"But chill out. You're just too fucking ugly,

dude. No one with any semblance of taste would ever

be interested in you at all, no matter what their

orientation."

 

"Hey! that's great!"

 

"You have a nice butt, though."

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"Wow! Is that for real?" Fire asked, genuinely

surprised.

 

"Ah, it ain't that big," Oberon said, blushing

from his toes to his balding head. "Since I'm so short,

it just looks larger in contrast."

 

"Contrast, my ass. Let's take hand measurements."

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"HOLY SHIT! THAT'S SICK!"

 

"Wait, it gets worse," Booster said.

 

"Want some nachos?" offered Beetle.

 

Kilowog nodded, stuffing a large handful into

his wide mouth, as he leaned forward, the couch

groaning beneath his weight. Earthlings never ceased

to amaze him.

 

"Hey, what's on?" Fire asked, as she walked

into the lounge, beaming with relaxed happiness.

"Is that cable?"

 

"Ah, no, wait, just..." Beetle stammered,

fumbling with the remote.

 

"Hey! Is that Gardner? HOLY SHIT! THAT'S SICK!"

she said, opening her eyes wide and sitting down.

She stared speechlessly for a while before speaking

again. "Pass the nachos, will you?"

 

"Oh, boy," Kilowog said. "I never thought the

power ring could be used like THAT..."

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"That creep! That asshole! I... FUCK! How could

he do this to me?"

 

"Barda, calm down," Oberon begged. "I-I'm sorry,

I shouldva told ya hours ago, but -well, something came up."

 

"When I get through with him, he'll wish he'd

been dead for real!" Barda cried. "I thought he was

gone... Shit! I cried like a stupid weakling... And

all for what? For a damned decoy?"

 

"We don't know yet what really happened."

 

"I tell him to stay home, to be a real family!

But no! He has to go and play hero! Leaving me here

all alone! So horny I could fuck the dog next door!"

 

"Barda!"

 

"I'm here mourning, and he's out in another

fucking tour, I bet! Fuck this!" she yelled, tearing

at her all-black dress.

 

"He may've been kidnapped again-"

 

"It's the groupies! IT'S THE DAMN GROUPIES!" she

screamed, punching a hole through the wall. "That's

why he wants to go on tour all the time, I know! To

fuck all those soft, spineless bimbos!"

 

"Barda, I swear Scott has never-"

 

"I'll show him! Who the hell needs him or his

useless duplicates? I'LL SHOW HIM!" she spat as she

tore off the remains of her clothing in a frenzy.

 

"Barda, please! Getta hold of yourself," said

Oberon, truly worried. He had seen Barda mad before,

but never like this. Not even that time they had

burned the house down. Yet he could not look away

from her exposed figure. He had known Barda for years,

and had often wondered how such a spectacular woman

looked naked, but the reality of it was actually

overwhelming. "I-I know it's a, uh, shock, but..."

 

"YOU!" she said, her eyes burning wildly.

"YOU'LL DO!"

 

"What-?"

 

"GET OVER HERE!"

 

"Barda! You can't! I can't! Not to Scott!"

 

"You won't do anything to Scott! You'll do it to

me! NOW GET OVER HERE!"

 

Oberon swallowed hard. He was really getting too

old for this shit.

 

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

EPILOGUE TWO: WON'T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME?

 

 

 

J'onn sighed. He had been trying to achieve deep

meditation for hours, but the state of no-mind was

eluding him. Days later, he was still too shaken.

 

Relieved as he was by the news about Scott, he

still felt troubled. After all, he would had never

done something like that under normal circumstances.

Yet it had happened, and he still felt uncomfortable

thinking about her.

 

He hadn't known whether to feel loss or relief

when she had been called away the next day.

 

He wondered how much she already knew.

 

Only a telepath like him could fully experience

the whole extent of a mindlink, after all. He had felt

it all, every instant, every nuance, as if it had been

his own flesh. In Mars, only lifemates could ever

share that much.

 

He wondered if he should ever tell her.

 

 

 

**************************************

 

 

 

"But if everybody's watching it..." Ice

complained, puzzled.

 

"We have better things to do," Fire said,

pushing Ice along the corridor, away from the lounge.

"Like shopping. It was payday yesterday and we still

have money. That's completely unacceptable. I'll

have Obey take us to the Mall."

 

"I don't understand. Just what is on that video?"

 

"Believe me, dear, there are things you're better

off not knowing."

 

 

**************************************

 

 

The transport beam was accurate to the

millimeter and he materialized right on his front

lawn.

 

Scott Free smiled, walking towards the door. He

could still remember Khan's outrage and L-Ron's beeps

of disbelief as he had pointed out the loopholes in

the Conglomerate's contract, too intricate for most

AIs, even. Manga was still shouting when he left, but

Mister Miracle was supposed to get out of anything,

after all. If he wanted to be free, there was nothing

that could truly keep a man trapped.

 

"Honey, I'm back," he called out.

 

"YOU DAMN BASTARD! DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?

WHAT DATE?" Barda's voice thundered. "WHERE THE FUCK

HAVE YOU BEEN? THERE'S A TON OF LAUNDRY TO DO! AND

THE DIRTY DISHES HAVE BEEN PILING IN THE SINK!"

 

Mister Miracle smiled. It was good to be home.

 

 

 

THE END


End file.
